You know that stuff that was so important when you bought it, then put it away and forgot completely about it? Well, I have mentioned that I collect teddy bear (and friends) stuff. I thought that I did pretty well with keeping track of what I have bought - after all, the teddys have their own room with a dresser for storage (shared with assorted Cabbage Patch Kids clothing),as well as assorted other pieces of furniture in the room. It was to double as guest room so there is a bed and night stand, shelving, closet and small cabinet. Some is storage, some is teddys and friends stuff.
In our studio, which is through an arch from our kitchen, we have 2 dressers from husband’s childhood bedroom. (A third is the one that teddys “use”.) One of them backs to the kitchen table and has our TV on top. It has a drawer (filled with embroidery floss and similar neatly organized in zip bags) and two shelves below the drawer. I presumed it completely filled with craft room “stuff”.
The other day I was looking for some towels that were kept in this cabinet maybe 25 years ago. They were towels that we bought to wipe sweat off of us when we came in from riding our bicycles and were in this cabinet to be convenient to use when we came in the kitchen door from bicycle riding. I thought perhaps they were still in the cabinet after all these years. So I got down on the floor and moved the empty plastic ice cream tubs stacked in front of the doors and the small sewing machine and opened the doors. The towels were not there. But, the space seemed rather empty to me. Hmm, storage space unused - what can go there?
I have an assortment of empty plastic containers (don’t we all) many of which are out on one of my 3 small kitchen countertop areas. These are ones I took out to use from the large plastic boxes at the bottom of the kitchen closet/pantry where the empty ones are stored. Why didn’t they go back into storage - well, I knew I would need them again and did not want to have to deal with getting them out of the bottom of the closet. I decided that this cabinet in our studio would be a great place to store some of them - while returning most of them to where they belong - and to store those large plastic ice cream tubs. (The ice cream tubs are terrific square storage boxes - bread, rolls, etc. fit in them rather well.)
Last Saturday we came home from visiting my mom at the rehab center and had some time before we would leave for dinner and a movie. Husband went upstairs to his computer. I decided to see what I could store in the cabinet. I moved away - again - the ice cream tubs and sewing machine and opened the doors. There was more stuff in the cabinet than I thought there was - it was all shoved to the back. Unused VHS video tapes (yes, we still have VHS recorders and a Beta recorder also), the accessories to the handheld electric mixer - I did check that they were to my current one, not the one that died and we got rid of (and replaced with the new one), our pasta maker (don’t use it, but figured it is a really good dough mixer - I am guessing that when I figure out where to donate stuff again, this might go along with the deep fryer we never use which is stored in another of husband’s dressers in the studio), and some other stuff - of husband’s that needed to be kept.
I found 3 small legged pieces of plastic that have square holes in them, some sort of packaging stuff we held onto I guess, which would make nice benches for my bear village - if I found some small loose soda bottles (the ones I have are permanently in a small tub of ice) they could be used as holders for same also. Those went upstairs to the teddy village stuff.
I also found the cardboard box from when I used to do ceramic painting kits. It had small pods of paint - dried out, the brushes I used to use (clean and usable), and the cloth I used to clean the brushes (kept for now). I also found an ice cream box with purchased acrylic paint bottles in it. The bottles are old and I had put them in this box just over a year ago when I found that I still had some of those ceramic painting kits, but the paints were no longer good (those ones in the pods) and had pulled out paints to paint a kit - which was one of the items in front of the cabinet doors.
I also found a small (maybe 3 inch tall) teddy bear dressed as a carpenter pin that was something to be painted. Hmmm, without the pin back he would great in the village to wander around looking for things to fix. I pulled him out and opened his packaging. There was a list of needed paints and instructions for what to paint which color and in what order. Oh, boy, right up my alley and I need to do something creative and have been, as they say, “blocked”. No embroidery no small bears that I came with an idea to make. This is just what I need and he has been patiently hiding in the cabinet waiting for me to remember him.
We have a lot of acrylic craft paint bottles with assorted colors. I went through them about 5 years ago and tossed the dried up ones, but who knows if the others have dried out since then? Tonight I started looking for the colors I needed per the list. Using a napkin and several cotton swabs I tested the colors I found that seemed to match what I need for him. I found almost all of them, but needed some light colors that I did not have. I did find a bottle of white paint and figure I can add some to darker colors and get the colors I need. I hope to start painting tomorrow.
I took the small cardboard box from my earlier project to get rid of the box and see what was in it. I went through the pods that with the dried paint - all of the pods were dried out. I kept the ones that had the least paint in them and will try cleaning out as the pods can be used for mixing small amounts of color and storing them short times. I tossed some paint bottles that the paint seemed to be dried in. And then I found ----- the carpenter had a friend! There was a Santa pin in the box also to be painted! He will wait for now, of course.
While the cabinet was not as empty as I thought it was, I did manage to get the stack of empty ice cream tubs into it. I rearranged what was in there so that more would fit in - not the sewing machine unfortunately - it is too tall for either shelf. I can get a medium sized basket and store some of those plastic containers in it for more convenient access to them.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is amazing what one can find when one starts going through “stuff”. If one goes through items that are sitting around one will find surprises. One will find stuff to toss or donate and make room for what one needs to store and one might find some hidden items that one has forgotten one has that bring a smile to one’s face.
Showing posts with label bears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bears. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Thursday, December 27, 2018
2018 Christmas mixed with 1775 Christmas
I hope those how celebrate Christmas had a good holiday. I hate to use the Merry or Happy as there are many for whom that won’t happen, but good holiday has a larger definition and is more inclusive. (By the way - Queen Victoria was the one who changed the expression from Merry to Happy in Britain. Why? Well what we think of as the meaning of Merry is not what it then meant. To wish someone a Merry Christmas then, was to wish them a drunken Christmas.)
Did you get all of your holiday preparations done on time? I didn’t. Between time lost back in October and November to my husband’s injured shoulder/arm, doing an assortment of tasks twice to get them done finally and correctly, work, and my general laziness, compounded by the fact that I lost 2 evenings (which should have been 3 - but more on that later) to the Candlelight Nights reenactment event we do with our reenactment unit just before Christmas, I fell behind - even for me.
Normally I would have everything I wanted to do finished, except my (infamous) Teddy Christmas Village setup. Over the years it has become normal for me to be setting it up on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day night, or even just after same. Dinner for Christmas Eve would be planned in advance,gifts wrapped, all the other trees and decorations up and in place. Not this year.
As I wrote last week, I had set up the living room and dining room and front hall decorations - mostly - in advance. I put artificial roping over the windows in the living and dining room and did so this year in the dining room. The living room involves moving a coffee table from in front of the windows to hang the roping there - and an embroidered hoop piece that I put in the center of the roping. (The coffee table is there and not in front of the sofa since it became husband’s weaving room and while not heavy is shoved between 2 chairs and therefore hard to move.) At Christmas Eve the roping was still waiting. I put it back the box and sat the embroidered piece on a chair (which will not be sat in anyway). While doing this annoys me - the lack of the roping does not change the holiday in any way.
Last week, you may remember, I assembled the tree while writing my post to you. On Thursday night I brought up the two boxes of decorations that go on it first (the nicer ones), put “Lion in Winter” in the DVD player (a tradition with husband and me) and started on decorating the tree. It took a few hours but the decorations went on the tree. I put them on the tree in sections as there are so many that it makes it easier to see them. I put angels on the top section of the tree all around - or at least on the 3 sides one can actually see. On the front of the tree I put the ornaments we have bought on vacation - and about vacation - I remember as I start to leave a vertical space for key chain we bought at one of the Smithsonian Air and Space museums of a red fabric piece which says “remove before flight” as used on planes. An ornament does not have to be an actual ornament is something we figured out a number of years ago. (We were someplace and they had the same piece as a key ring -not this one - and as an ornament. Key ring was $3, ornament was $15 - we bought the key ring.) In addition to key rings, we have bought the pins that people put on their hats to show that they have been someplace and a variety of other small items. On the side of the tree facing the front hall and to the left of the vacation ornaments are the Santa ornaments - there I have to leave a space long enough for Santa hanging from a parachute until I come to it. To the left of the them are the teddy bear ornaments - and above them the ones dated with our anniversary - towards the back of the tree - paper houses are hanging. On the other side of the tree - facing the side of the room, but visible are sections with stars, characters (Snoopy, Alice in Wonderland...), (fake) candy, vehicles and so on. Then other ornaments are mixed in around the tree in all of these - handmade ornaments (some embroidered of course), and so on.
Friday night we were suppose to be at the Candlelight event, but there was a huge rain storm coming in and the restoration canceled the night on Thursday as it would be too dangerous for people to be out in the storm and they figured few people would come. So I was able to work on the other two boxes of ornaments (while watching the second version of “Lion in Winter” that we have. These boxes have larger ornaments - balls and such - so there are less of them. I put the more “important” of them on the tree - and stopped. The back of the tree - the side facing the window and not seen in the room (or outside as the drapes are closed) is naked this year - for the first time ever. I cleared up the room and stored the boxes downstairs. As I took a box down I brought a large Santa or elf figure upstairs. This also allowed us to food shop Friday afternoon. While I had already bought stuff earlier in the week to make a Brunswick stew for Christmas Eve dinner, we also need food items that don’t have to be cooked or cook quickly to eat for dinner when we come home at around 10:30/11 pm after the events.
Saturday night (well, actually afternoon) we ate a bigger lunch than normal at Wendys as we were eating earlier and would eat dinner much later than normal. We then went home to dress in our period style clothing. I had previously laid out my clothing - in reverse order of how they worn so the first piece to be put on is at the top of the pile and the last (my apron) is at the bottom of the pile. I put on my “stockings” and shoes (I can’t reach the shoes after I put on my stays) and then my “shift” (a white more or less A-line dress that serves as underwear in period). Over this I wear “stays” - not a corset and not worn tightly tied as Scarlet O’Hara wore her corset. The stays have lacing up the back and front and I only open the front lacing to put them on and off. I had them on and laced up the front. I then pulled the lacing to tighten them (only to the feel of “a gentle hug” and then to tie them - suddenly I was holding a piece of the lacing in my hand and the rest had mostly unlaced itself. The lacing had torn apart! I do not have a spare lace as it came with (on) the stays. Husband suggested that I get some fabric seam tape from our studio. I ran down glad of a solution. Uh, Oh! I had stored his weaving stuff - yarns, finished pieces, table on my side of the studio. I had taken out what I thought we might need to access - safety pins, thread spools and such, but we never need seam tape - so I could not get any. On my way back upstairs the thought hit me, I could pull the seam tape in the waistband of my other petticoat (skirt) out and use it - no problem unless I decide to wear my other petticoat the next night - then an even better idea hit - I have a spare apron and have it used it while cooking at events so it is stained and I would not be wearing it during this event. I pulled it out. I started trying to lace the stays with it - end was stiff and it was wider than the lacing - I grabbed a pen and used to point to push the lacing into each hole - and it worked great (no one sees it as it under the rest of my clothing.) We then rushed - afraid to be late to get there as husband is in charge and the first night we have to make sure the building is set up right and that we have candles, etc. We got there half an hour early to be there an hour before the event started! We sat in the car until we saw some employees of the restoration go into the building.
Everything we needed was there and we rearranged things from how they had been left for us to how we needed them. As unit members came in each started setting up what they normally work with. We made sure to put the keys to the building in the spot where they are suppose to be kept (don’t want to miss them when we go to lock up later). As 4pm approached we lit the candles inside the house and on the steps outside. Three of the rooms are behind clear half height gates, the others are walk through. I put on my cap and offered the mirror in one of the gated off rooms to other women in our unit before I slide that gate into place, the last of the gates to be put in place. One of the fellows had the fire going in the kitchen and the musician was ready. We had a very successful and fun - both for the crowds and us - evening. Members each do whatever they feel they would like to do at the event - sing, greet people at the door and tell them about the building, be a person of the past (as husband and I do) and talk about the house and “our” time as someone who knows nothing of the future, just up to the matching day in 1775. We are on the village for some of our fellows to fire their muskets 3 times during the night in front of the building. When we went back on Sunday night we found out that 1500 people had come through the village the night before! And Sunday night seemed to have almost as many people.
Saturday night after we came home, changed our clothes and had dinner I brought up the rest of my Santas and elves and set all of them up in the living room at the entrance to the room. (Most of them were Christmas gifts from someone husband worked with, two I made, one we bought, and one is husband’s since he was a boy. At this point the excess packing was stored away and the room almost finished - for this year at least.
Sunday was a repeat of Saturday - eat lunch early and more than usual, change clothes, drive to restoration village - not as early this time as we knew that everything was ready for us. The event was basically a repeat of the night before (and really every night we do this), while always being different based on who comes through the building and their interests as life in 1775 had about as many facets as life does today and one or the other of us (or several of us) will be able to talk on the different facets.
After we, again, came home, changed our clothes and had dinner, I went back to Christmas decorating. I brought up our Christmas stockings - one pair red and white fur with names for use in the years that there is something for them, one pair decorated with “Santa Claus, the movie” and one pair I embroidered for us. There are is also a line of small stockings with the names of our Cabbage Patch kids on them (yes, we are that silly). I also boiled the chicken I needed for the Brunswick stew for Christmas Eve dinner.
Christmas Eve day we went out for lunch and some short errands as places closed early. While I cooked our dinner and set the table in the dining room - I had to, again, take the stuff we had brought back into the house from the RV to the RV. Since the stew cooks a long time and has to be watched, I brought up and assembled the dining room tree and decorated it with brass ornaments we have received as members of Colonial Williamsburg. I have, somehow, duplicates of two them and the two duplicates I put on the main tree in the living room. I then took the handmade ornaments I had set aside as I did the main tree (the handmade ornaments are split between the two trees) and set up the tree in the studio for them and put them on the tree - the woven wheat snowflake I use for star on top (made by husband) needed a bit of reinforcing glue on one point and I fixed it.
Ah, all that will/can be done was done at this point. I turned on the living room and studio tree lights and finished cooking dinner. We had dinner, I did the dishes. I put the few (3) gifts we had bought ourselves in recycled Christmas gift bags. Husband wrapped his 2 nieces’ Christmas gifts in Christmas paper and their birthday gifts in different in different paper and we put them in bags for Christmas Day. We then went to Midnight Mass.
Husband later went up to bed before me and I put our gifts under the tree - next to the empty fancy gift boxes there for “show”.
Christmas Day was spent at his sister’s house and the less said about it, the better. Today was the 26th. I paid all the bills due until after New Year’s Day, we mailed them, we went to the bank and transferred money to cover them and then came home for a quiet evening to rest up. Tomorrow night we go back to the Candlelight Nights through Saturday night. Ah, being in 1775 for 3 more nights - something we love. Then the teddy village will be changed from fall to Winter/Christmas.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
None of us can do everything. I could be upset and kicking myself for not getting all of the decorating done, but I did the best I could. Husband points out that there is nothing missing when one looks at it all. Another year, more will be done.
Relax - you can only do the best you can - in decorating and organizing. New Year’s Day will be here before I talk with you again - remember think of what you might want to change or improve and decide to try. Don’t make resolutions - just pick something and think about what you can do. And don’t forget - every day is the start of a new year.
I wish a happy, and healthy new year to all of you.
Did you get all of your holiday preparations done on time? I didn’t. Between time lost back in October and November to my husband’s injured shoulder/arm, doing an assortment of tasks twice to get them done finally and correctly, work, and my general laziness, compounded by the fact that I lost 2 evenings (which should have been 3 - but more on that later) to the Candlelight Nights reenactment event we do with our reenactment unit just before Christmas, I fell behind - even for me.
Normally I would have everything I wanted to do finished, except my (infamous) Teddy Christmas Village setup. Over the years it has become normal for me to be setting it up on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day night, or even just after same. Dinner for Christmas Eve would be planned in advance,gifts wrapped, all the other trees and decorations up and in place. Not this year.
As I wrote last week, I had set up the living room and dining room and front hall decorations - mostly - in advance. I put artificial roping over the windows in the living and dining room and did so this year in the dining room. The living room involves moving a coffee table from in front of the windows to hang the roping there - and an embroidered hoop piece that I put in the center of the roping. (The coffee table is there and not in front of the sofa since it became husband’s weaving room and while not heavy is shoved between 2 chairs and therefore hard to move.) At Christmas Eve the roping was still waiting. I put it back the box and sat the embroidered piece on a chair (which will not be sat in anyway). While doing this annoys me - the lack of the roping does not change the holiday in any way.
Last week, you may remember, I assembled the tree while writing my post to you. On Thursday night I brought up the two boxes of decorations that go on it first (the nicer ones), put “Lion in Winter” in the DVD player (a tradition with husband and me) and started on decorating the tree. It took a few hours but the decorations went on the tree. I put them on the tree in sections as there are so many that it makes it easier to see them. I put angels on the top section of the tree all around - or at least on the 3 sides one can actually see. On the front of the tree I put the ornaments we have bought on vacation - and about vacation - I remember as I start to leave a vertical space for key chain we bought at one of the Smithsonian Air and Space museums of a red fabric piece which says “remove before flight” as used on planes. An ornament does not have to be an actual ornament is something we figured out a number of years ago. (We were someplace and they had the same piece as a key ring -not this one - and as an ornament. Key ring was $3, ornament was $15 - we bought the key ring.) In addition to key rings, we have bought the pins that people put on their hats to show that they have been someplace and a variety of other small items. On the side of the tree facing the front hall and to the left of the vacation ornaments are the Santa ornaments - there I have to leave a space long enough for Santa hanging from a parachute until I come to it. To the left of the them are the teddy bear ornaments - and above them the ones dated with our anniversary - towards the back of the tree - paper houses are hanging. On the other side of the tree - facing the side of the room, but visible are sections with stars, characters (Snoopy, Alice in Wonderland...), (fake) candy, vehicles and so on. Then other ornaments are mixed in around the tree in all of these - handmade ornaments (some embroidered of course), and so on.
Friday night we were suppose to be at the Candlelight event, but there was a huge rain storm coming in and the restoration canceled the night on Thursday as it would be too dangerous for people to be out in the storm and they figured few people would come. So I was able to work on the other two boxes of ornaments (while watching the second version of “Lion in Winter” that we have. These boxes have larger ornaments - balls and such - so there are less of them. I put the more “important” of them on the tree - and stopped. The back of the tree - the side facing the window and not seen in the room (or outside as the drapes are closed) is naked this year - for the first time ever. I cleared up the room and stored the boxes downstairs. As I took a box down I brought a large Santa or elf figure upstairs. This also allowed us to food shop Friday afternoon. While I had already bought stuff earlier in the week to make a Brunswick stew for Christmas Eve dinner, we also need food items that don’t have to be cooked or cook quickly to eat for dinner when we come home at around 10:30/11 pm after the events.
Saturday night (well, actually afternoon) we ate a bigger lunch than normal at Wendys as we were eating earlier and would eat dinner much later than normal. We then went home to dress in our period style clothing. I had previously laid out my clothing - in reverse order of how they worn so the first piece to be put on is at the top of the pile and the last (my apron) is at the bottom of the pile. I put on my “stockings” and shoes (I can’t reach the shoes after I put on my stays) and then my “shift” (a white more or less A-line dress that serves as underwear in period). Over this I wear “stays” - not a corset and not worn tightly tied as Scarlet O’Hara wore her corset. The stays have lacing up the back and front and I only open the front lacing to put them on and off. I had them on and laced up the front. I then pulled the lacing to tighten them (only to the feel of “a gentle hug” and then to tie them - suddenly I was holding a piece of the lacing in my hand and the rest had mostly unlaced itself. The lacing had torn apart! I do not have a spare lace as it came with (on) the stays. Husband suggested that I get some fabric seam tape from our studio. I ran down glad of a solution. Uh, Oh! I had stored his weaving stuff - yarns, finished pieces, table on my side of the studio. I had taken out what I thought we might need to access - safety pins, thread spools and such, but we never need seam tape - so I could not get any. On my way back upstairs the thought hit me, I could pull the seam tape in the waistband of my other petticoat (skirt) out and use it - no problem unless I decide to wear my other petticoat the next night - then an even better idea hit - I have a spare apron and have it used it while cooking at events so it is stained and I would not be wearing it during this event. I pulled it out. I started trying to lace the stays with it - end was stiff and it was wider than the lacing - I grabbed a pen and used to point to push the lacing into each hole - and it worked great (no one sees it as it under the rest of my clothing.) We then rushed - afraid to be late to get there as husband is in charge and the first night we have to make sure the building is set up right and that we have candles, etc. We got there half an hour early to be there an hour before the event started! We sat in the car until we saw some employees of the restoration go into the building.
Everything we needed was there and we rearranged things from how they had been left for us to how we needed them. As unit members came in each started setting up what they normally work with. We made sure to put the keys to the building in the spot where they are suppose to be kept (don’t want to miss them when we go to lock up later). As 4pm approached we lit the candles inside the house and on the steps outside. Three of the rooms are behind clear half height gates, the others are walk through. I put on my cap and offered the mirror in one of the gated off rooms to other women in our unit before I slide that gate into place, the last of the gates to be put in place. One of the fellows had the fire going in the kitchen and the musician was ready. We had a very successful and fun - both for the crowds and us - evening. Members each do whatever they feel they would like to do at the event - sing, greet people at the door and tell them about the building, be a person of the past (as husband and I do) and talk about the house and “our” time as someone who knows nothing of the future, just up to the matching day in 1775. We are on the village for some of our fellows to fire their muskets 3 times during the night in front of the building. When we went back on Sunday night we found out that 1500 people had come through the village the night before! And Sunday night seemed to have almost as many people.
Saturday night after we came home, changed our clothes and had dinner I brought up the rest of my Santas and elves and set all of them up in the living room at the entrance to the room. (Most of them were Christmas gifts from someone husband worked with, two I made, one we bought, and one is husband’s since he was a boy. At this point the excess packing was stored away and the room almost finished - for this year at least.
Sunday was a repeat of Saturday - eat lunch early and more than usual, change clothes, drive to restoration village - not as early this time as we knew that everything was ready for us. The event was basically a repeat of the night before (and really every night we do this), while always being different based on who comes through the building and their interests as life in 1775 had about as many facets as life does today and one or the other of us (or several of us) will be able to talk on the different facets.
After we, again, came home, changed our clothes and had dinner, I went back to Christmas decorating. I brought up our Christmas stockings - one pair red and white fur with names for use in the years that there is something for them, one pair decorated with “Santa Claus, the movie” and one pair I embroidered for us. There are is also a line of small stockings with the names of our Cabbage Patch kids on them (yes, we are that silly). I also boiled the chicken I needed for the Brunswick stew for Christmas Eve dinner.
Christmas Eve day we went out for lunch and some short errands as places closed early. While I cooked our dinner and set the table in the dining room - I had to, again, take the stuff we had brought back into the house from the RV to the RV. Since the stew cooks a long time and has to be watched, I brought up and assembled the dining room tree and decorated it with brass ornaments we have received as members of Colonial Williamsburg. I have, somehow, duplicates of two them and the two duplicates I put on the main tree in the living room. I then took the handmade ornaments I had set aside as I did the main tree (the handmade ornaments are split between the two trees) and set up the tree in the studio for them and put them on the tree - the woven wheat snowflake I use for star on top (made by husband) needed a bit of reinforcing glue on one point and I fixed it.
Ah, all that will/can be done was done at this point. I turned on the living room and studio tree lights and finished cooking dinner. We had dinner, I did the dishes. I put the few (3) gifts we had bought ourselves in recycled Christmas gift bags. Husband wrapped his 2 nieces’ Christmas gifts in Christmas paper and their birthday gifts in different in different paper and we put them in bags for Christmas Day. We then went to Midnight Mass.
Husband later went up to bed before me and I put our gifts under the tree - next to the empty fancy gift boxes there for “show”.
Christmas Day was spent at his sister’s house and the less said about it, the better. Today was the 26th. I paid all the bills due until after New Year’s Day, we mailed them, we went to the bank and transferred money to cover them and then came home for a quiet evening to rest up. Tomorrow night we go back to the Candlelight Nights through Saturday night. Ah, being in 1775 for 3 more nights - something we love. Then the teddy village will be changed from fall to Winter/Christmas.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
None of us can do everything. I could be upset and kicking myself for not getting all of the decorating done, but I did the best I could. Husband points out that there is nothing missing when one looks at it all. Another year, more will be done.
Relax - you can only do the best you can - in decorating and organizing. New Year’s Day will be here before I talk with you again - remember think of what you might want to change or improve and decide to try. Don’t make resolutions - just pick something and think about what you can do. And don’t forget - every day is the start of a new year.
I wish a happy, and healthy new year to all of you.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
HALLOWEEN HERE - HOLIDAYS COMING
Well it is Halloween. For the first time in many years (at least a couple of decades) we are home and not in Pennsylvania. We normally go away for my birthday as I don’t like all the Halloween stuff being associated it with it - including not being able to go out for a nice dinner other than at an Asian restaurant - and while it is everywhere, there is a lot less in the area we go to and we can walk into local restaurants and not be served by a science experiment gone wrong covered in blood - ick. Since husband’s shoulder still has not healed he could not drive anywhere near that far and he cannot ride when someone else drives, so here we are.
What surprised me the most was the total lack of trick or treaters. Even when we were home for Halloween we had no trick or treaters until the woman next door to us had her son and his family - including his young daughter - move in and then she came by for a couple of years until they moved. Then the house beyond that one had a new family move in - they had 3 children and we had the children and maybe a couple of their friends come by for maybe 3 years. The street is 4 lanes, so the family that lived across the street never came here - too dangerous to cross the street. We live on a main street with only these children on it in the past and since we did not know the families on the streets near us I figured that we did not have trick or treaters as they did not know us.
But now there is a new family in the house on either side of us and I figured that they would come by. They did not. What surprised us even more is that when we driving home from running errands and lunch - around 3:30 pm (which is when I would have been out making the rounds as a child) and later when we went out to pick up Chinese takeout for dinner - we did not see one child (or adult) in costumes walking around.
Later, after dinner, I read the regional newspaper (yes, I still read the “dead tree” newspaper) there was an article on how most of the neighborhoods no longer have trick or treaters going around. Parents and schools have apparently decided (and rightly so) for safety in today’s world to have parties at the schools or what is called “trunk and treat” at the schools or other location rather than the children going around house to house. This eliminates the danger of children out alone - and possibly in the dark - as well as what strangers might give the children. In thinking about it I realized that I had not seen any of the usual - “Bring your candy to the hospital and we will X-ray it for you.”
For those of you who might not know about trunk and treat - groups of families get together in parking lot at a school, park, or shopping center. The cars are decorated for the holiday and the trunk (or hatch) is open and the children go from car to car for their trick or treating and possibly other activities. Parents know who the other participants are and the children have fun and are safe. The first time I saw this was the Halloween 2 days after Superstorm Sandy. There were few people out and about and we had gasoline shortages and major electric outages. Sidewalks were not safe to walk on due to trees and limbs - and wires which had fallen down. I thought this a great idea for the children. I did not know at the time that it was something being done otherwise than the storm.
Have you noticed a lack of trick or treaters in your area in recent years - or is this area an anomaly?
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If it is Halloween than the start of the end of the year holiday season is starting - if not already started. As we head into the end of year holiday season, think. Don’t overdo. Think “less is more”. Buy less items (oh, the retail industry will hate me) but think more about what you do buy. I tend to be very conservative in gift giving and have pushed husband in that direction.
His sister goes the opposite way and buys each of her two daughters, umm, I mean Santa brings each of her two daughters 64 gifts. Huh? Yes 64 gifts - and I don’t mean small ones. Sister in law has some idea stuck in her head that she received same each year as a child - I knew her then, she did not - and feels she must do this for her daughters. I have even seen her give duplicate gifts to them as she forgot she already bought the same or very similar gift the same year. Their grandmother (on their dad’s side) goes into debt that she cannot afford to buy them even more.
As a result the girls do not value what they have received - or even remember what they have received. The two girls are adopted from China. When the older one was younger (she is a teenager now) we bought her an Asian faced Cabbage Patch Kid. Her grandmother also did so. A couple of years later she was at our house and I was playing with my Cabbage Patch Dolls with her. (No children, so dolls and bears are my substitute - when I play with the dolls with our nieces I am the nice aunt, if I play with them alone, I am “the crazy lady”.) Niece said to me “I wish I had a doll like these.” I told her that she two of them - and she was shocked. They were “on the pile” at home and she did not remember them.
So as you start the season keep in mind that less can really be more. Stay on your budget. Buy items with meaning or is something that the person wants. Don’t go overboard because other family members do.
Watch what you spend on what I calling “buying garbage” - huh? When you buy wrapping paper and ribbon it is basically buying something that will quickly be garbage and thrown out. My rule for Christmas wrapping was $1 for 50 square feet for decades. I will now spend $1 for 40 square feet as price adjustment over time. I buy inexpensive curling ribbon and make long tendrils that I put on gifts - in expensive, one does not feel the need to “save the bows” and they don’t get crushed when traveling. I have a ribbon shredder to use on the ribbon, which makes it look even nicer. Christmas cards are the same. They are opened, maybe displayed and then thrown out. Shop wisely and one can get very nice cards inexpensively - and don’t forget the end of the season sales which seem these days to start right as the season starts. Think about this - my sister had a friend whose father owned a small chain of upscale card and gift stores. The girl’s gifts for my sister were always wrapped in Sunday color comics - never wrapping paper.
What surprised me the most was the total lack of trick or treaters. Even when we were home for Halloween we had no trick or treaters until the woman next door to us had her son and his family - including his young daughter - move in and then she came by for a couple of years until they moved. Then the house beyond that one had a new family move in - they had 3 children and we had the children and maybe a couple of their friends come by for maybe 3 years. The street is 4 lanes, so the family that lived across the street never came here - too dangerous to cross the street. We live on a main street with only these children on it in the past and since we did not know the families on the streets near us I figured that we did not have trick or treaters as they did not know us.
But now there is a new family in the house on either side of us and I figured that they would come by. They did not. What surprised us even more is that when we driving home from running errands and lunch - around 3:30 pm (which is when I would have been out making the rounds as a child) and later when we went out to pick up Chinese takeout for dinner - we did not see one child (or adult) in costumes walking around.
Later, after dinner, I read the regional newspaper (yes, I still read the “dead tree” newspaper) there was an article on how most of the neighborhoods no longer have trick or treaters going around. Parents and schools have apparently decided (and rightly so) for safety in today’s world to have parties at the schools or what is called “trunk and treat” at the schools or other location rather than the children going around house to house. This eliminates the danger of children out alone - and possibly in the dark - as well as what strangers might give the children. In thinking about it I realized that I had not seen any of the usual - “Bring your candy to the hospital and we will X-ray it for you.”
For those of you who might not know about trunk and treat - groups of families get together in parking lot at a school, park, or shopping center. The cars are decorated for the holiday and the trunk (or hatch) is open and the children go from car to car for their trick or treating and possibly other activities. Parents know who the other participants are and the children have fun and are safe. The first time I saw this was the Halloween 2 days after Superstorm Sandy. There were few people out and about and we had gasoline shortages and major electric outages. Sidewalks were not safe to walk on due to trees and limbs - and wires which had fallen down. I thought this a great idea for the children. I did not know at the time that it was something being done otherwise than the storm.
Have you noticed a lack of trick or treaters in your area in recent years - or is this area an anomaly?
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If it is Halloween than the start of the end of the year holiday season is starting - if not already started. As we head into the end of year holiday season, think. Don’t overdo. Think “less is more”. Buy less items (oh, the retail industry will hate me) but think more about what you do buy. I tend to be very conservative in gift giving and have pushed husband in that direction.
His sister goes the opposite way and buys each of her two daughters, umm, I mean Santa brings each of her two daughters 64 gifts. Huh? Yes 64 gifts - and I don’t mean small ones. Sister in law has some idea stuck in her head that she received same each year as a child - I knew her then, she did not - and feels she must do this for her daughters. I have even seen her give duplicate gifts to them as she forgot she already bought the same or very similar gift the same year. Their grandmother (on their dad’s side) goes into debt that she cannot afford to buy them even more.
As a result the girls do not value what they have received - or even remember what they have received. The two girls are adopted from China. When the older one was younger (she is a teenager now) we bought her an Asian faced Cabbage Patch Kid. Her grandmother also did so. A couple of years later she was at our house and I was playing with my Cabbage Patch Dolls with her. (No children, so dolls and bears are my substitute - when I play with the dolls with our nieces I am the nice aunt, if I play with them alone, I am “the crazy lady”.) Niece said to me “I wish I had a doll like these.” I told her that she two of them - and she was shocked. They were “on the pile” at home and she did not remember them.
So as you start the season keep in mind that less can really be more. Stay on your budget. Buy items with meaning or is something that the person wants. Don’t go overboard because other family members do.
Watch what you spend on what I calling “buying garbage” - huh? When you buy wrapping paper and ribbon it is basically buying something that will quickly be garbage and thrown out. My rule for Christmas wrapping was $1 for 50 square feet for decades. I will now spend $1 for 40 square feet as price adjustment over time. I buy inexpensive curling ribbon and make long tendrils that I put on gifts - in expensive, one does not feel the need to “save the bows” and they don’t get crushed when traveling. I have a ribbon shredder to use on the ribbon, which makes it look even nicer. Christmas cards are the same. They are opened, maybe displayed and then thrown out. Shop wisely and one can get very nice cards inexpensively - and don’t forget the end of the season sales which seem these days to start right as the season starts. Think about this - my sister had a friend whose father owned a small chain of upscale card and gift stores. The girl’s gifts for my sister were always wrapped in Sunday color comics - never wrapping paper.
Thursday, February 22, 2018
NO VACATION
In this part of the U.S. this week is the winter school vacation. This dates back to the 1970s when there was an energy shortage and closing the schools this week saved a week of expensive heating of the schools. For those of you not in the U.S. the third Monday in February is an annual Monday holiday related to George Washington’s (our first President back in the 1780s) birthday which is February 22. It is still officially called “George Washington’s Birthday”, but since the purpose of it is to celebrate all of our Presidents, it is commonly called “President’s Day”. So, around here the 3 day weekend resulting from this Monday holiday was extended to a week of no school.
While many to most people are off from work on Monday, only those working at schools have the week off. The only connection that others have with the week off is what to do with their children while the children are off from school and they are working. Husband worked at an agency for children with mental health problems which followed a school year as it was also a school program for the children so he is used to this week being a vacation week. While he was still working and I was working full time for myself (back when we still stayed at hotels when traveling) we would go away this week to Lancaster, PA. It would be nice and quiet as was/is not a school vacation in Pennsylvania and in many other adjacent states so not many people were traveling mid week.
Husband had planned to go there for the day this coming Friday - but it is suppose to rain, so he moved it back to Tuesday (yesterday) which was suppose to be and was nice. At the last minute he changed his mind and we did not go.
Okay you are thinking - What does this have to do with organizing?
Well, a lot actually. If we are going away - even for a day - I have to plan around the trip to get done what regularly needs to be done in the house plus have everything ready for the trip. Even a day trip seems to take a bit of packing these days. I bring my work laptop, which has to be charged. I bring a small case with a spare wallet, just in case we were robbed while traveling or one of us lost their wallet and the credit cards had to be canceled. There is a credit card for me that he does have and a credit card for him that I do not have, there is extra cash, and there are assorted store cards and such which are for stores out of the area. We used to carry Travelers checks in also, but found out that no one takes them any longer so we (with much trouble) cashed them in a couple of years ago. I bring a spare set of one day’s medications - just in case. I might also have some craft business related papers so if we buy materials (fabric, wood, yarn) that will go into something we are making for sale, we will not have to pay sales tax - different forms for different states. If we are looking for something specific to buy while away we might bring something to match it to for size, color, etc. Depending on the weather we might bring warmer - or cooler coats/sweaters than we plan to wear - maybe even a rain coat when it is warmer weather if rain is possible. We also might bring a spare pair of shoes each - again depending on the weather. So much for the carefree easy travel of our younger years.
This year we have been traveling on these one day trips to Lancaster in our RV. Not that we plan to stay, but the RV is not driven enough - especially off RV season (late fall to early spring) and the engine needs the exercise. Last year we did not so this and we went to have our annual state inspection for the RV, it had not been driven enough for the tests to work, so we had to drive it locally for a few hours just to put enough mileage on it. Waste of time, waste of gas and we had to work it out so we went and came back between rush hours. So we take the RV when we go to Lancaster for day trips - well, this would have been the second time we did so. The other advantage to taking the RV is that the refrigerator can be turned on in it when we leave in the morning and will be cold by the time we are there. A can of soda for lunch will still be cold (especially if it is cold outside) when we have it and we can buy food items we like that are local to Lancaster and not available at home that need to be refrigerated and bring them home safely. (Last year when we went with the car husband bought chicken salad - he likes the type they make there and not what they make here) without the fridge and it got too hot in the cold bag in the back of the car, even with ice blocks in it and it had to be tossed.
So Monday I pointed out that if we were going away on Tuesday, we should get extra cash at the bank and did so. When we came home I packed what papers and such we would bring with us and had the laptop ready to charge. I then paid bills which were due out today so they would be ready to go out today even though we would not have been home yesterday.
Then Monday night - after not doing things I planned to do Monday so we could go away, he decided we were not going. It was a question I asked - “Do we need to take the stuff we stored in the RV out of it?” There is all sorts of stuff for the RV that we keep in the house when traveling (in the dining room) and then put in it for the off season so we have a nice dining room for the holidays. He thought about it and the fact it was raining and decided not to go.
So I got a day to work at home that I had not planned on.
I managed to finish filling the corporation tax forms for a client - due March 15. I still have to proofread it (and check the numbers and math) and print it all out, but the hard part is done.
I have been working on storing the Christmas stuff. I took the ornaments off the dining room tree and took the tree apart to store. It goes in a cardboard octagonal box (opens down the length of the box) which then “slides” into a carry bag (opens on one end). It has never been easy to get it into the box - much squeezing and many hand scratches and packing tape to hold the box together and then hard to get the box into the bag. This year the entire setup exploded - okay, part was my fault. I thought there were 3 sections to the tree (in height) and there are four. I was so confused that the tree section was longer than the box that the box got ripped apart on one end from my attempts. Even after I figured it out and took the 2 sections apart - the box was far gone. I then tried to tie each of the tree sections together so the branches would be compacted into place for storage - did not work either. I finally sort of got the box together - much packing tape - and still it only fit partway into the bag as the box was not as compact as it should be. I gave up - the entire thing was put downstairs on the box the main tree is stored in, as is.
I packed up the large figures we have in the living room. Someone husband worked with would give him these figures as a Christmas gift. Somehow they grew on us and we kept them even though we would not have bought them - well... It started with a Santa who is about 3 or 4 feet tall. He was joined by a wooden elf a bit shorter. Then a Santa who is a bear with toys and a bird in a cage. I had made separately and unrelated an elf who is making a doll - he joined the others instead of sitting standoffishly across the room. We found a small plastic Santa from when husband was a boy. I liked a girl elf figure that finally came down cheaper enough (well below 50% off) who joined them. Add 2 angel bears and it is a friendly group. It goes where a chair is moved to the dining room during Christmas to get it out of the way. They are also stored on top of the box for the main Christmas tree - in large plastic bags.
Then I took the small figures - mostly bears (oh, the angels above join them in storage) and stored them in their box in the basement. Our Christmas stockings (embroidered and commercial) and some other “soft” decorations I have made store in the box with them.
Three fancy gift boxes I use for storage have been packed with the items stored in them each year and are upstairs for storage when the Teddy Village comes down (they go in the trunk the village is on).
While doing the laundry now, I brought up the last 2 boxes to store Christmas decorations in - except the bear village. I will pack these two over the next couple of days.
So, we missed out on a day trip, but I have made good use of the day we were home instead - and kept working until it was done .
To feel a bit like we had a trip we went out to dinner tonight to a fancier (more expensive) Asian buffet tonight. The really nice one is much more than we felt like spending this year (technically this is our Christmas dinner out) so we went to one in between. Very nice and much better than the ones we go to normally. It made him happy and it that is worth it.
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -
1 - Even short day trips work better with a bit of planning.
2 - When one gets an unexpected day to get work done - get as much done as possible.
While many to most people are off from work on Monday, only those working at schools have the week off. The only connection that others have with the week off is what to do with their children while the children are off from school and they are working. Husband worked at an agency for children with mental health problems which followed a school year as it was also a school program for the children so he is used to this week being a vacation week. While he was still working and I was working full time for myself (back when we still stayed at hotels when traveling) we would go away this week to Lancaster, PA. It would be nice and quiet as was/is not a school vacation in Pennsylvania and in many other adjacent states so not many people were traveling mid week.
Husband had planned to go there for the day this coming Friday - but it is suppose to rain, so he moved it back to Tuesday (yesterday) which was suppose to be and was nice. At the last minute he changed his mind and we did not go.
Okay you are thinking - What does this have to do with organizing?
Well, a lot actually. If we are going away - even for a day - I have to plan around the trip to get done what regularly needs to be done in the house plus have everything ready for the trip. Even a day trip seems to take a bit of packing these days. I bring my work laptop, which has to be charged. I bring a small case with a spare wallet, just in case we were robbed while traveling or one of us lost their wallet and the credit cards had to be canceled. There is a credit card for me that he does have and a credit card for him that I do not have, there is extra cash, and there are assorted store cards and such which are for stores out of the area. We used to carry Travelers checks in also, but found out that no one takes them any longer so we (with much trouble) cashed them in a couple of years ago. I bring a spare set of one day’s medications - just in case. I might also have some craft business related papers so if we buy materials (fabric, wood, yarn) that will go into something we are making for sale, we will not have to pay sales tax - different forms for different states. If we are looking for something specific to buy while away we might bring something to match it to for size, color, etc. Depending on the weather we might bring warmer - or cooler coats/sweaters than we plan to wear - maybe even a rain coat when it is warmer weather if rain is possible. We also might bring a spare pair of shoes each - again depending on the weather. So much for the carefree easy travel of our younger years.
This year we have been traveling on these one day trips to Lancaster in our RV. Not that we plan to stay, but the RV is not driven enough - especially off RV season (late fall to early spring) and the engine needs the exercise. Last year we did not so this and we went to have our annual state inspection for the RV, it had not been driven enough for the tests to work, so we had to drive it locally for a few hours just to put enough mileage on it. Waste of time, waste of gas and we had to work it out so we went and came back between rush hours. So we take the RV when we go to Lancaster for day trips - well, this would have been the second time we did so. The other advantage to taking the RV is that the refrigerator can be turned on in it when we leave in the morning and will be cold by the time we are there. A can of soda for lunch will still be cold (especially if it is cold outside) when we have it and we can buy food items we like that are local to Lancaster and not available at home that need to be refrigerated and bring them home safely. (Last year when we went with the car husband bought chicken salad - he likes the type they make there and not what they make here) without the fridge and it got too hot in the cold bag in the back of the car, even with ice blocks in it and it had to be tossed.
So Monday I pointed out that if we were going away on Tuesday, we should get extra cash at the bank and did so. When we came home I packed what papers and such we would bring with us and had the laptop ready to charge. I then paid bills which were due out today so they would be ready to go out today even though we would not have been home yesterday.
Then Monday night - after not doing things I planned to do Monday so we could go away, he decided we were not going. It was a question I asked - “Do we need to take the stuff we stored in the RV out of it?” There is all sorts of stuff for the RV that we keep in the house when traveling (in the dining room) and then put in it for the off season so we have a nice dining room for the holidays. He thought about it and the fact it was raining and decided not to go.
So I got a day to work at home that I had not planned on.
I managed to finish filling the corporation tax forms for a client - due March 15. I still have to proofread it (and check the numbers and math) and print it all out, but the hard part is done.
I have been working on storing the Christmas stuff. I took the ornaments off the dining room tree and took the tree apart to store. It goes in a cardboard octagonal box (opens down the length of the box) which then “slides” into a carry bag (opens on one end). It has never been easy to get it into the box - much squeezing and many hand scratches and packing tape to hold the box together and then hard to get the box into the bag. This year the entire setup exploded - okay, part was my fault. I thought there were 3 sections to the tree (in height) and there are four. I was so confused that the tree section was longer than the box that the box got ripped apart on one end from my attempts. Even after I figured it out and took the 2 sections apart - the box was far gone. I then tried to tie each of the tree sections together so the branches would be compacted into place for storage - did not work either. I finally sort of got the box together - much packing tape - and still it only fit partway into the bag as the box was not as compact as it should be. I gave up - the entire thing was put downstairs on the box the main tree is stored in, as is.
I packed up the large figures we have in the living room. Someone husband worked with would give him these figures as a Christmas gift. Somehow they grew on us and we kept them even though we would not have bought them - well... It started with a Santa who is about 3 or 4 feet tall. He was joined by a wooden elf a bit shorter. Then a Santa who is a bear with toys and a bird in a cage. I had made separately and unrelated an elf who is making a doll - he joined the others instead of sitting standoffishly across the room. We found a small plastic Santa from when husband was a boy. I liked a girl elf figure that finally came down cheaper enough (well below 50% off) who joined them. Add 2 angel bears and it is a friendly group. It goes where a chair is moved to the dining room during Christmas to get it out of the way. They are also stored on top of the box for the main Christmas tree - in large plastic bags.
Then I took the small figures - mostly bears (oh, the angels above join them in storage) and stored them in their box in the basement. Our Christmas stockings (embroidered and commercial) and some other “soft” decorations I have made store in the box with them.
Three fancy gift boxes I use for storage have been packed with the items stored in them each year and are upstairs for storage when the Teddy Village comes down (they go in the trunk the village is on).
While doing the laundry now, I brought up the last 2 boxes to store Christmas decorations in - except the bear village. I will pack these two over the next couple of days.
So, we missed out on a day trip, but I have made good use of the day we were home instead - and kept working until it was done .
To feel a bit like we had a trip we went out to dinner tonight to a fancier (more expensive) Asian buffet tonight. The really nice one is much more than we felt like spending this year (technically this is our Christmas dinner out) so we went to one in between. Very nice and much better than the ones we go to normally. It made him happy and it that is worth it.
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -
1 - Even short day trips work better with a bit of planning.
2 - When one gets an unexpected day to get work done - get as much done as possible.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
IT WOULD BE ENOUGH
I managed to get the dining room decorations finished over the weekend. I also decluttered it a bit - and hid what has to stay a bit better. The small Christmas tree I put up in there is up and decorated with the brass ornaments we get with our membership in Colonial Williamsburg. A silverplated tea caddy ornament (we bought the full size caddy on sale one year and the ornament came with it) hangs at the top of the tree instead of an angel or star.
Sounds simple right? To get ready to set up the tree I had to store away husband’s DVDs which have accumulated since last Christmas. The new ones sat on the chest he made to store his DVDs because - yes - it filled a few years ago. We have a secretary (piece of furniture- drawers with fold down front for desk and shelves above it - green curtain inside hides the shelves and what is on them). It was bought to be used as a bar and to hold table linens in the drawer. The shelves held assorted bar and my good glasses. I have been clearing it out as I can to make room for - yes - more DVDs. Most of the bottom of the 3 shelves is DVD storage - I donated unneeded, unused glassware in the kitchen last year and moved most of my good glasses to where they had been to make the room for these DVDs. I just donated a set of small wine glasses we never used earlier this month. I want to get rid of most if not all of the bar ware as it was rarely used when we had people in and that will give him more room. But, back to the chest now. I ended up with DVDs that there was no room for and set them aside. The chest when it was built by my husband was put on wheels just for this - I pushed it from the living room to the dining room. Other than having to jump a molding between the living room and front hall, it is easy to push. It goes against the far wall in the dining room. The table is moved to the center of the room for this - it is normally pushed against the same far wall. This gives room in the living room for the big tree (where the chest was) and a place to put the dining room tree. I put the leftover, homeless DVDs behind the tree and then found a nice throw we received from CW some years ago, folded it in half lengthwise and wrapped the bottom of the tree - and the DVDs behind it - it looks like a nice tree skirt and the DVDs are hidden.
Sunday I also started bringing up the parts of the big tree and stuck them together - and the small tree that goes in our studio. The studio tree gets ornaments we have made - but some also go on the big tree and all are stored together, so they get decorated together. I figured - okay, we are close on time, but not too bad to get done before Christmas. I had planned on Monday night to spread out the branches and make the big tree look nice and add the lights - along with our traditional first 3 items - the angel topper and two angels all stitched by me or my husband.
Then we got an order on our Etsy account. We don’t get a lot of orders and they are mostly of the smallest of the items we sell. This was for a medium priced item and I had to do the paperwork before I started working on the tree - okay, I figured, half an hour. Yeah, right. Paypal changed their website and we got so confused trying to buy postage and print the label that we ended up doing it twice and had to cancel one of them. So the entire evening was gone and no work on the tree.
Tuesday we went to the eye doctor. He is in the next county so we go to together. We can’t come home right away as neither of can see enough to drive that much so we go to stores near him. (Good eye report, thank goodness.) We ended up having dinner out at Ikea on the way home. I did get the tree arranged and the lights and first three items on it at night.
Tonight I took the exam I had to take and now the exams are done with until the middle of next year. But by the time I was done, and taking into consideration doing the laundry and writing to all of you - no time for the tree tonight. Oh, well, at least gift shopping is over - we are done with his nieces and I will mail checks to my niece and nephew.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One can only do what one can do. For the Passover holiday in the spring there is a song which translates to “it would have been enough” - it talks about things that God did to help the Jews leave Egypt and after each item is mentioned the refrain is “it would have been enough”.
If the tree is finished at the last minute it will done then. If it is not finished then however it is, it is finished (and I can always add on after the holiday). My teddy village will be done when it is done. It is often not worked on until Christmas Eve or Day or later (I guess that is why it stays up so long).
My point being that whatever is done when the holiday come is enough. If stuff is shoved into a bag and stuffed behind a bench - that is good enough if that is all there is time for. A few years ago for two years we had one little tree with only a limited decorations - and that was enough.
I take the time now to wish all who celebrate, a Pleasant Christmas (merry sounds too demanding).
Sounds simple right? To get ready to set up the tree I had to store away husband’s DVDs which have accumulated since last Christmas. The new ones sat on the chest he made to store his DVDs because - yes - it filled a few years ago. We have a secretary (piece of furniture- drawers with fold down front for desk and shelves above it - green curtain inside hides the shelves and what is on them). It was bought to be used as a bar and to hold table linens in the drawer. The shelves held assorted bar and my good glasses. I have been clearing it out as I can to make room for - yes - more DVDs. Most of the bottom of the 3 shelves is DVD storage - I donated unneeded, unused glassware in the kitchen last year and moved most of my good glasses to where they had been to make the room for these DVDs. I just donated a set of small wine glasses we never used earlier this month. I want to get rid of most if not all of the bar ware as it was rarely used when we had people in and that will give him more room. But, back to the chest now. I ended up with DVDs that there was no room for and set them aside. The chest when it was built by my husband was put on wheels just for this - I pushed it from the living room to the dining room. Other than having to jump a molding between the living room and front hall, it is easy to push. It goes against the far wall in the dining room. The table is moved to the center of the room for this - it is normally pushed against the same far wall. This gives room in the living room for the big tree (where the chest was) and a place to put the dining room tree. I put the leftover, homeless DVDs behind the tree and then found a nice throw we received from CW some years ago, folded it in half lengthwise and wrapped the bottom of the tree - and the DVDs behind it - it looks like a nice tree skirt and the DVDs are hidden.
Sunday I also started bringing up the parts of the big tree and stuck them together - and the small tree that goes in our studio. The studio tree gets ornaments we have made - but some also go on the big tree and all are stored together, so they get decorated together. I figured - okay, we are close on time, but not too bad to get done before Christmas. I had planned on Monday night to spread out the branches and make the big tree look nice and add the lights - along with our traditional first 3 items - the angel topper and two angels all stitched by me or my husband.
Then we got an order on our Etsy account. We don’t get a lot of orders and they are mostly of the smallest of the items we sell. This was for a medium priced item and I had to do the paperwork before I started working on the tree - okay, I figured, half an hour. Yeah, right. Paypal changed their website and we got so confused trying to buy postage and print the label that we ended up doing it twice and had to cancel one of them. So the entire evening was gone and no work on the tree.
Tuesday we went to the eye doctor. He is in the next county so we go to together. We can’t come home right away as neither of can see enough to drive that much so we go to stores near him. (Good eye report, thank goodness.) We ended up having dinner out at Ikea on the way home. I did get the tree arranged and the lights and first three items on it at night.
Tonight I took the exam I had to take and now the exams are done with until the middle of next year. But by the time I was done, and taking into consideration doing the laundry and writing to all of you - no time for the tree tonight. Oh, well, at least gift shopping is over - we are done with his nieces and I will mail checks to my niece and nephew.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One can only do what one can do. For the Passover holiday in the spring there is a song which translates to “it would have been enough” - it talks about things that God did to help the Jews leave Egypt and after each item is mentioned the refrain is “it would have been enough”.
If the tree is finished at the last minute it will done then. If it is not finished then however it is, it is finished (and I can always add on after the holiday). My teddy village will be done when it is done. It is often not worked on until Christmas Eve or Day or later (I guess that is why it stays up so long).
My point being that whatever is done when the holiday come is enough. If stuff is shoved into a bag and stuffed behind a bench - that is good enough if that is all there is time for. A few years ago for two years we had one little tree with only a limited decorations - and that was enough.
I take the time now to wish all who celebrate, a Pleasant Christmas (merry sounds too demanding).
Thursday, November 23, 2017
SEMI UNORGANIZED THANKSGIVING
Ah, the holidays are coming! Is panic setting in?
Last week I put out my few Thanksgiving decorations. A small setting of Pilgrim bear figurines going to Thanksgiving at a house in a tree. (I painted the tree and most of the bears from kits - in one case while I was supposed to making and getting the house ready for Thanksgiving dinner.) Other “human” Thanksgiving figurines and salt and pepper shakers and a pair of candleholders given me by a friend decades ago. Husband took me to “Thanksgiving world” - aka Plymouth, MA decades ago and I bought most of the assorted non-bear items there in gift shops.
I am sure I have mentioned before, but just in case I did not, my husband and I are of different faiths. I am Jewish and he is Roman Catholic. As a result we did not have that “whose family are we going to” problem for most family holidays. We went to my family for Jewish holidays and his family for Christian holidays. But then there was Thanksgiving.
Growing up, as well as an adult, Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday - and not just because I am an eater. It was the only uniquely American family holiday which was not religious based - it was/is a holiday for all Americans. Also there were no gifts - gifts I received tended to have nothing to do with me or anything I was interested in - especially beyond my immediate family - and I had to smile and say thank you - and then figure out what to do with the item - this was not a problem with Thanksgiving.
Now, it has been found that when the answer to what do you have for thanksgiving dinner - answer “turkey and all the trimmings” was further looked into, it was found that same varied greatly. For a while growing up our Thanksgivings were celebrated with my mom’s family and her sister-in-law (my aunt) had become kosher, so we would go to a kosher delicatessen restaurant for dinner. Mom would cook turkey during the year, so it was not what we wanted there. My sisters and I wanted corned beef sandwiches! The waiter would keep asking if we were sure and we were. They had handed us the complete regular menu after all, and that was our dinner. My husband’s family is from Italy. They would have a first course of some kind of macaroni (what we Americans call pasta). So while being the uniquely encompassing holiday, Thanksgiving is large enough to encompass all of various backgrounds.
While dating and the first few years we were married we would juggle which family we went to - generally we ended up with his family. One year I had the idea to have both families come to our tiny apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. He was shocked at the idea. Oh, one difference between our families is that my family tends (short of accommodating the kosher aunt) tends to eat at home for holidays, while his family eats out. We figured out a menu, found a place that has hot turkey pick up on Thanksgiving, and went ahead. It went fairly well - the entire living room filled with two long folding tables put end to end. For 25 years we made Thanksgiving dinner. Nieces and nephew came along. My dad died. A few times a friend or an in law of a family member was included. We moved one year at the end of October from our apartment to this house - and we made Thanksgiving dinner - and used the good china. It was the bedbugs which brought this to an end as we cannot bring ourselves to have anyone in the house.
Organizing? I see now how organized I was for those dinners. Now the two of us have our Thanksgiving dinner alone. At first we went to an inexpensive general food buffet restaurant and it was very nice as the manager made it feel party like. Then he left and it was not as nice and then finally the place closed. So on and off over the past several years I have made Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us. What a mess!
First of all, I never know if I am making dinner or if we are going out to an Asian buffet until the last minute. Last year we waited so long, we almost could not get a turkey which was not frozen - and that would not have defrosted in time. This year we bought a turkey this past Saturday.
In the old days I had a menu from the past to work with. We might change a dish or two, but basically it was the same menu. I have a spiral notebook with almost every dinner we made for Thanksgiving and the other holidays we took a turn out with, mostly, my family over the years. (I reached the end of the notebook using the right hand pages and now I am going backwards, using the left hand pages.) The first week in November I would start checking ads and buying things for the dinner, so at the last minute items like milk which had to be bought fresh were all that was left to buy.
Well, we went this past Sunday to the supermarket to start buying what we needed - without making a list of what we would make or what we needed. It was as if there was a combination hurricane and major snow storm announced at the same time! The parking lot was jammed. The store was jammed. We gave up and left. We then actually made up a list of what we would have and needed so when we went back Monday it was not as jammed - we actually went to another supermarket chain as they had items we were looking for on sale - and were able to buy almost all the items needed at the one supermarket, with a quick stop at the one from Sunday for 2 items we had not been able to get. Husband complained about the crowds - I told him flat out - “This is why I used to shop the first week of the month!”
We have baked a pie tonight. Everything else can be done tomorrow, Thanksgiving. I will set up the turkey tonight so when I get up really early tomorrow to put the turkey in the oven, I can go back to sleep a lot quicker.
While downstairs doing my regular Wednesday night laundry (I will not fall behind just because it is a holiday) I took out “the turkey platter”. This is a larger platter than our others and has a chip in it. We use it to put the turkey on to carve it and then use smaller ones for serving the turkey (whether for the family or just us). I washed it as it is kept in the basement. In the afternoon I brought a bunch of RV stuff (clean sheets, towels...) out to the RV so it is all out of the dinning room. I moved some stuff into place in the dinning room.
Tomorrow I will add one board to our dinning room table, instead of the four boards that I used to add for the family. I will cover it with a plastic/foam cover (I have them in sizes to fit all lengths of the table) and then my Thanksgiving tablecloth (much too large as it fits the table with four boards - so the ends of the table have long overhangs. One board is needed so that the serving plates and bowls fit on the table. I will take out 2 settings of my good china, one fabric napkin & one paper napkin, one of my good glasses & husband’s every day glass, and use my silver plate tableware. I will cook the dinner. I used to know - start the potatoes first as they will be mashed, and heated in the oven at the end, so get them out of the way as if they cool off it is okay. No idea what to start with these years - we are making boiled potatoes instead of mashed. No sweet potatoes this year - he likes them I don’t. And we will have our Thanksgiving dinner.
After dinner the extra food will be put away, and when you are two people with a 14 lb turkey, there is a lot to store away. The table will be cleared and I will wash (by hand) the dishes, pots, pans, etc. The napkin and tablecloth will be washed and dried (by machine) and I will probably also wash the last load of regular laundry which is normally washed on Thursdays nights. The garbage will go out to the can - no pickup until Monday.
I really miss the juggling of which dish to cook when. The baking Venetians (rainbow cookies) starting on Tuesday so they would be ready in time (jelly between layers has to sit weighted overnight). I miss spending all day Wednesday cooking beef vegetable soup from scratch. It used to be all so organized! Now with less to do it is all so disorganized. Well, at least I don’t have to clean well enough to have my (late) mother in law here. (One year my sister actually wrote the year in the dust!)
I do not go shopping on Thanksgiving - or on “Black Friday”! There is nothing I have ever seen offered on sale that was worth the crowds. Think about this - the more you buy, the more you have to deal with and organize. Do you really need this or that?
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
I wish all a happy Thanksgiving!
Remember it is just one day - there will be joys and problems (one early year we cooked, shelled and peeled chestnuts for hours, then while they were cooling on the counter, I dropped a glass I had washed and was putting away - next to them and they had to be tossed as we were not sure if we could get all the glass shards out. The time with family - whether a large group or just two or even time alone - is what matters.
Take time to be thankful for what you have - don’t look for what you are lacking, even if there is much you are lacking. Stop and breathe and think about what you do have.
Last week I put out my few Thanksgiving decorations. A small setting of Pilgrim bear figurines going to Thanksgiving at a house in a tree. (I painted the tree and most of the bears from kits - in one case while I was supposed to making and getting the house ready for Thanksgiving dinner.) Other “human” Thanksgiving figurines and salt and pepper shakers and a pair of candleholders given me by a friend decades ago. Husband took me to “Thanksgiving world” - aka Plymouth, MA decades ago and I bought most of the assorted non-bear items there in gift shops.
I am sure I have mentioned before, but just in case I did not, my husband and I are of different faiths. I am Jewish and he is Roman Catholic. As a result we did not have that “whose family are we going to” problem for most family holidays. We went to my family for Jewish holidays and his family for Christian holidays. But then there was Thanksgiving.
Growing up, as well as an adult, Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday - and not just because I am an eater. It was the only uniquely American family holiday which was not religious based - it was/is a holiday for all Americans. Also there were no gifts - gifts I received tended to have nothing to do with me or anything I was interested in - especially beyond my immediate family - and I had to smile and say thank you - and then figure out what to do with the item - this was not a problem with Thanksgiving.
Now, it has been found that when the answer to what do you have for thanksgiving dinner - answer “turkey and all the trimmings” was further looked into, it was found that same varied greatly. For a while growing up our Thanksgivings were celebrated with my mom’s family and her sister-in-law (my aunt) had become kosher, so we would go to a kosher delicatessen restaurant for dinner. Mom would cook turkey during the year, so it was not what we wanted there. My sisters and I wanted corned beef sandwiches! The waiter would keep asking if we were sure and we were. They had handed us the complete regular menu after all, and that was our dinner. My husband’s family is from Italy. They would have a first course of some kind of macaroni (what we Americans call pasta). So while being the uniquely encompassing holiday, Thanksgiving is large enough to encompass all of various backgrounds.
While dating and the first few years we were married we would juggle which family we went to - generally we ended up with his family. One year I had the idea to have both families come to our tiny apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. He was shocked at the idea. Oh, one difference between our families is that my family tends (short of accommodating the kosher aunt) tends to eat at home for holidays, while his family eats out. We figured out a menu, found a place that has hot turkey pick up on Thanksgiving, and went ahead. It went fairly well - the entire living room filled with two long folding tables put end to end. For 25 years we made Thanksgiving dinner. Nieces and nephew came along. My dad died. A few times a friend or an in law of a family member was included. We moved one year at the end of October from our apartment to this house - and we made Thanksgiving dinner - and used the good china. It was the bedbugs which brought this to an end as we cannot bring ourselves to have anyone in the house.
Organizing? I see now how organized I was for those dinners. Now the two of us have our Thanksgiving dinner alone. At first we went to an inexpensive general food buffet restaurant and it was very nice as the manager made it feel party like. Then he left and it was not as nice and then finally the place closed. So on and off over the past several years I have made Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us. What a mess!
First of all, I never know if I am making dinner or if we are going out to an Asian buffet until the last minute. Last year we waited so long, we almost could not get a turkey which was not frozen - and that would not have defrosted in time. This year we bought a turkey this past Saturday.
In the old days I had a menu from the past to work with. We might change a dish or two, but basically it was the same menu. I have a spiral notebook with almost every dinner we made for Thanksgiving and the other holidays we took a turn out with, mostly, my family over the years. (I reached the end of the notebook using the right hand pages and now I am going backwards, using the left hand pages.) The first week in November I would start checking ads and buying things for the dinner, so at the last minute items like milk which had to be bought fresh were all that was left to buy.
Well, we went this past Sunday to the supermarket to start buying what we needed - without making a list of what we would make or what we needed. It was as if there was a combination hurricane and major snow storm announced at the same time! The parking lot was jammed. The store was jammed. We gave up and left. We then actually made up a list of what we would have and needed so when we went back Monday it was not as jammed - we actually went to another supermarket chain as they had items we were looking for on sale - and were able to buy almost all the items needed at the one supermarket, with a quick stop at the one from Sunday for 2 items we had not been able to get. Husband complained about the crowds - I told him flat out - “This is why I used to shop the first week of the month!”
We have baked a pie tonight. Everything else can be done tomorrow, Thanksgiving. I will set up the turkey tonight so when I get up really early tomorrow to put the turkey in the oven, I can go back to sleep a lot quicker.
While downstairs doing my regular Wednesday night laundry (I will not fall behind just because it is a holiday) I took out “the turkey platter”. This is a larger platter than our others and has a chip in it. We use it to put the turkey on to carve it and then use smaller ones for serving the turkey (whether for the family or just us). I washed it as it is kept in the basement. In the afternoon I brought a bunch of RV stuff (clean sheets, towels...) out to the RV so it is all out of the dinning room. I moved some stuff into place in the dinning room.
Tomorrow I will add one board to our dinning room table, instead of the four boards that I used to add for the family. I will cover it with a plastic/foam cover (I have them in sizes to fit all lengths of the table) and then my Thanksgiving tablecloth (much too large as it fits the table with four boards - so the ends of the table have long overhangs. One board is needed so that the serving plates and bowls fit on the table. I will take out 2 settings of my good china, one fabric napkin & one paper napkin, one of my good glasses & husband’s every day glass, and use my silver plate tableware. I will cook the dinner. I used to know - start the potatoes first as they will be mashed, and heated in the oven at the end, so get them out of the way as if they cool off it is okay. No idea what to start with these years - we are making boiled potatoes instead of mashed. No sweet potatoes this year - he likes them I don’t. And we will have our Thanksgiving dinner.
After dinner the extra food will be put away, and when you are two people with a 14 lb turkey, there is a lot to store away. The table will be cleared and I will wash (by hand) the dishes, pots, pans, etc. The napkin and tablecloth will be washed and dried (by machine) and I will probably also wash the last load of regular laundry which is normally washed on Thursdays nights. The garbage will go out to the can - no pickup until Monday.
I really miss the juggling of which dish to cook when. The baking Venetians (rainbow cookies) starting on Tuesday so they would be ready in time (jelly between layers has to sit weighted overnight). I miss spending all day Wednesday cooking beef vegetable soup from scratch. It used to be all so organized! Now with less to do it is all so disorganized. Well, at least I don’t have to clean well enough to have my (late) mother in law here. (One year my sister actually wrote the year in the dust!)
I do not go shopping on Thanksgiving - or on “Black Friday”! There is nothing I have ever seen offered on sale that was worth the crowds. Think about this - the more you buy, the more you have to deal with and organize. Do you really need this or that?
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
I wish all a happy Thanksgiving!
Remember it is just one day - there will be joys and problems (one early year we cooked, shelled and peeled chestnuts for hours, then while they were cooling on the counter, I dropped a glass I had washed and was putting away - next to them and they had to be tossed as we were not sure if we could get all the glass shards out. The time with family - whether a large group or just two or even time alone - is what matters.
Take time to be thankful for what you have - don’t look for what you are lacking, even if there is much you are lacking. Stop and breathe and think about what you do have.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
WORKING IN THE DARK
We were suppose to go to Pennsylvania for the day on Tuesday, but when we woke up - it was raining. No point in going to a mostly outside farmer’s market - driving 3+ hours each way and paying over $20 in tolls, just for half the vendors not to be there because of rain, so we did not go. I had planned on going to a client Tuesday and put it off due to the planned trip.
So husband changed the plan to go on Friday. I sat down yesterday (Tuesday) and instead of doing things I should, I paid our bills and figured out how much we have transfer to our checking account to cover the bills - and making sure we had enough to do so. We went to the bank today and dealt with it all as I will be in NYC tomorrow and husband does not like to deal with our finances - he is always afraid he will do something wrong and checks will start bouncing. Normally we go to the bank on Fridays, but we hope to be away.
I needed to catch up on work that I am behind on for the two clubs of which I am treasurer as well as work on client’s income taxes. I planned to finish doing so today when we came home from running errands. I turned on my computer to check email. I was just finishing a rather long, complicated email and BANG!! The lights went off with the sound of an explosion. We know what this means - the transformer blew again. I called the electric company and was told that they know that 32 customers are out and the crew is on the way.
I unplugged my computer and related items - don’t want the electricity to come back on and spike and damage something. Now, what to do?
I pulled up the shade and pulled back the curtains. I sorted through some blank paper (sorted it by size) that I keep on the top of the folder holding shelves on my desk - I needed to do this for a while. Then I went through the papers from one of the clubs mentioned above. I had to do followup work on the annual renewals - pulled out the blank membership forms and put them in my “take to the meeting folder”, pulled out assorted papers from last year in the same file and put them together to file away. Still no electricity.
I went to the you know and on the way I noticed that there was a lot of light coming through the window into “the teddies room”. Hmmmm. I wanted to go through the suitcases on the bottom of the closet in there and donate most of them as we no longer use them. I moved the teddies and Cabbage Patch Kids still sitting in line to see Santa. So I could open the closet door. I found out that there was more in the bottom of the closet than I thought - an entire carton I did not get to after we had the bed bugs - I was wondering the other day what happened to my teddy bear magnets. Carton was put aside to go through another time. Tubes with posters in them were set aside for husband to look at - they must be his.
I took out the assorted suitcases. My idea is to come down to the larger suitcase on wheels (which husband likes to use), my shoulder carry suitcase, a backpack on wheels, and some of the smaller completely soft bags and 2 hangup bags. (The latter as they are hard to find.) When we travel now we travel in our RV and we bring the clothes into it in laundry bags, store the clothes in the closet, and then use a bag for the dirty laundry and the second one to carry the leftover clean clothes back into the house. We want the suitcases for emergencies or other oddities. We also have some small bags that we use when we go to quilt, woodworking shows, etc. to carry lunch and/or purchases, as well as some small bags we have received as donation gifts that are really nice, good bags and we use at various times. I had planned on putting all of the other bags in the rolling bag. Not big enough. I put all of the other luggage in it. I put all of the small bags into the rolling backpack. Okay, down to 2 bags. Better than it was.
The idea of this cleaning was to not only get rid of unneeded luggage (and get a tax deduction on it next year), but also to make room in the bottom of the closet for plastic boxes. Husband has a collection of articles about James Bond which are stacked and taking up room on book shelves. We will store the articles in plastic boxes - they will stop get dusty - and have more room for books. The boxes we bought to use for this fit perfectly where I planned to use them. The plastic tubes with posters will probably have to go back in the closet - they should fit behind the 2 suitcases. I will have to go through the carton and see what it is in it and what to do with it.
Oh, I also found 3 teddy bear ceramic craft items to paint. I knew there were more of them, but did not remember what or where. I still like 2 of them and will keep them and paint them. I need to think about the third one and decide if I like it - if not it will also be donated.
At some point as I was finishing up I realized that the lights were on downstairs and we had our electricity back. Only an hour and a half.
I finished the catchup work I needed to do. I plugged in my good laptop to charge and pulled out everything I need to go to work tomorrow. We picked up Chinese takeout for dinner.
On Wednesday nights I do laundry and write my blog post. I had planned to take a shower tonight, but fate again ensued. In the middle of writing this post - no really, between the second and third paragraphs to be exact. My husband came downstairs as he did not feel well. Nothing major, but he could not find the over the counter medication he needed. I looked. Unfortunately what happens is we buy OTC medications and then by the time we need them again - in some cases by the time we need them at all - it has expired. I don’t mean - “darn it was up last month”, I mean it expired years ago. I tend to toss them if I see them. Some items I will replace right away. Ones we rarely use I don’t. This apparently tossed when it expired and was not replaced. Husband was in a panic. Our Walmarts here are not 24 hour stores, except for the Neighborhood Market one (basically a supermarket only). So I left the washer running, shut down my laptop and off we went to the Neighborhood Market - 10minutes away. Of course nothing matched what he bought last time and it took awhile to figure out what to get. And as long as we were there and out of sugar free vanilla pudding, I ran and grabbed 2 boxes to have them. Then home again to finish this post.
Decision time - write post or take shower? Well, you are reading this aren’t you? I will wash myself well before going to bed. My client’s loss in my freshness is your gain in having this post to read.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Go with the flow. When all seems to be going wrong, take a deep breath and think, just go with what needs to be done. Anything which can wait - can wait. I could have panicked today, but did not. When I could not do what I planned to do - use the computer - I found something which has been waiting to be done for months and I could do. So now something which has been sitting is accomplished and most of what I was going to do is also done. I could have told husband I couldn’t go with him to get the medicine, but I knew it was important and that he would have a problem if he went alone (and I would be worrying about him) so that was done and I will deal with no shower.
One can go crazy when one is sidetracked or deal with it and see what can be done as a result of the sidetracking or what can be eliminated or delayed to deal with it.
So husband changed the plan to go on Friday. I sat down yesterday (Tuesday) and instead of doing things I should, I paid our bills and figured out how much we have transfer to our checking account to cover the bills - and making sure we had enough to do so. We went to the bank today and dealt with it all as I will be in NYC tomorrow and husband does not like to deal with our finances - he is always afraid he will do something wrong and checks will start bouncing. Normally we go to the bank on Fridays, but we hope to be away.
I needed to catch up on work that I am behind on for the two clubs of which I am treasurer as well as work on client’s income taxes. I planned to finish doing so today when we came home from running errands. I turned on my computer to check email. I was just finishing a rather long, complicated email and BANG!! The lights went off with the sound of an explosion. We know what this means - the transformer blew again. I called the electric company and was told that they know that 32 customers are out and the crew is on the way.
I unplugged my computer and related items - don’t want the electricity to come back on and spike and damage something. Now, what to do?
I pulled up the shade and pulled back the curtains. I sorted through some blank paper (sorted it by size) that I keep on the top of the folder holding shelves on my desk - I needed to do this for a while. Then I went through the papers from one of the clubs mentioned above. I had to do followup work on the annual renewals - pulled out the blank membership forms and put them in my “take to the meeting folder”, pulled out assorted papers from last year in the same file and put them together to file away. Still no electricity.
I went to the you know and on the way I noticed that there was a lot of light coming through the window into “the teddies room”. Hmmmm. I wanted to go through the suitcases on the bottom of the closet in there and donate most of them as we no longer use them. I moved the teddies and Cabbage Patch Kids still sitting in line to see Santa. So I could open the closet door. I found out that there was more in the bottom of the closet than I thought - an entire carton I did not get to after we had the bed bugs - I was wondering the other day what happened to my teddy bear magnets. Carton was put aside to go through another time. Tubes with posters in them were set aside for husband to look at - they must be his.
I took out the assorted suitcases. My idea is to come down to the larger suitcase on wheels (which husband likes to use), my shoulder carry suitcase, a backpack on wheels, and some of the smaller completely soft bags and 2 hangup bags. (The latter as they are hard to find.) When we travel now we travel in our RV and we bring the clothes into it in laundry bags, store the clothes in the closet, and then use a bag for the dirty laundry and the second one to carry the leftover clean clothes back into the house. We want the suitcases for emergencies or other oddities. We also have some small bags that we use when we go to quilt, woodworking shows, etc. to carry lunch and/or purchases, as well as some small bags we have received as donation gifts that are really nice, good bags and we use at various times. I had planned on putting all of the other bags in the rolling bag. Not big enough. I put all of the other luggage in it. I put all of the small bags into the rolling backpack. Okay, down to 2 bags. Better than it was.
The idea of this cleaning was to not only get rid of unneeded luggage (and get a tax deduction on it next year), but also to make room in the bottom of the closet for plastic boxes. Husband has a collection of articles about James Bond which are stacked and taking up room on book shelves. We will store the articles in plastic boxes - they will stop get dusty - and have more room for books. The boxes we bought to use for this fit perfectly where I planned to use them. The plastic tubes with posters will probably have to go back in the closet - they should fit behind the 2 suitcases. I will have to go through the carton and see what it is in it and what to do with it.
Oh, I also found 3 teddy bear ceramic craft items to paint. I knew there were more of them, but did not remember what or where. I still like 2 of them and will keep them and paint them. I need to think about the third one and decide if I like it - if not it will also be donated.
At some point as I was finishing up I realized that the lights were on downstairs and we had our electricity back. Only an hour and a half.
I finished the catchup work I needed to do. I plugged in my good laptop to charge and pulled out everything I need to go to work tomorrow. We picked up Chinese takeout for dinner.
On Wednesday nights I do laundry and write my blog post. I had planned to take a shower tonight, but fate again ensued. In the middle of writing this post - no really, between the second and third paragraphs to be exact. My husband came downstairs as he did not feel well. Nothing major, but he could not find the over the counter medication he needed. I looked. Unfortunately what happens is we buy OTC medications and then by the time we need them again - in some cases by the time we need them at all - it has expired. I don’t mean - “darn it was up last month”, I mean it expired years ago. I tend to toss them if I see them. Some items I will replace right away. Ones we rarely use I don’t. This apparently tossed when it expired and was not replaced. Husband was in a panic. Our Walmarts here are not 24 hour stores, except for the Neighborhood Market one (basically a supermarket only). So I left the washer running, shut down my laptop and off we went to the Neighborhood Market - 10minutes away. Of course nothing matched what he bought last time and it took awhile to figure out what to get. And as long as we were there and out of sugar free vanilla pudding, I ran and grabbed 2 boxes to have them. Then home again to finish this post.
Decision time - write post or take shower? Well, you are reading this aren’t you? I will wash myself well before going to bed. My client’s loss in my freshness is your gain in having this post to read.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Go with the flow. When all seems to be going wrong, take a deep breath and think, just go with what needs to be done. Anything which can wait - can wait. I could have panicked today, but did not. When I could not do what I planned to do - use the computer - I found something which has been waiting to be done for months and I could do. So now something which has been sitting is accomplished and most of what I was going to do is also done. I could have told husband I couldn’t go with him to get the medicine, but I knew it was important and that he would have a problem if he went alone (and I would be worrying about him) so that was done and I will deal with no shower.
One can go crazy when one is sidetracked or deal with it and see what can be done as a result of the sidetracking or what can be eliminated or delayed to deal with it.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
ORGANIZING OUR STUDIO
My husband and I have a “studio”. One of the reasons we picked the house we did is that it had a family room off the kitchen - actually it sort of opens into the kitchen with a big squared off archway between the rooms. It is not an original part of our house. One of the several owners before us added it to the back of the house as room to watch television and spend time with their family. To us it was a room to set up to work on our crafts - personal and to sell - and I would be able to cook at the same time in the adjacent kitchen. In the days before cable boxes and flat screen TVs we could also put our kitchen TV on a lazy susan and turn it around to also watch in the studio.
We set up the studio to suit our needs. We each have a 5 ft by 2 ½ foot office type table to work on. The tables sit back to back so if needed we have a 5 ft x 5ft space to work on - the tables are, for some reason, about an inch different in height, but generally that is not a problem if we need space. I have a bridge table in the corner of the room which abuts the table. When I used to make a lot of baby quilts it worked well to hold them up while I stitching them. It also is good to hold supplies and stuff next to me. I have two stacks of small plastic drawer units to hold ideas in progress, spare spools of thread, etc. There is a large 3 drawer plastic chest underneath with my sewing supplies and items to make small bears I used to make a lot of. Husband just had his table until a few years ago, after the bed bugs when I was trying to better organize the room, I added a 2 shelf plastic unit to hold items he needs more often than others next to him along the wall.
We have husband’s long dresser from his bedroom when he was a boy at the ends of the tables (the other ends are against the wall). Drawers hold embroidery supplies and pieces - completed and waiting to be made, miniature punch needle - ditto, wood turning parts and assembly tools, lucets, wooden games husband makes, some fancy batting and iron on glue and a pasta maker (well it is right off our kitchen and no place else was large enough). On top of it we have a 3 drawer unit which has a drawer each for items either of us is working on and a drawer of glues - all kinds of glues. (If we need glue in the house we know to look for it here.) There are an assortment of paper cutters - sliding ones, guillotine type ones, etc. There is also something called an Ellison machine - what is used in schools to cut letters, pictures, etc. to decorate classrooms.
We have 2 other dressers which we bought over the years which hold fabric - we have a lot of fabric. These are the ones which are cut pieces - the bolts are in the basement. We also have a dresser/cabinet combination - also husband’s from when he was a boy - which holds unstarted skeins of embroidery floss (Walmart discontinued them some years ago and we bought 2 of each color they had - since then they have brought them back) and other assorted needlework threads. The fabric dresser behind husband’s chair at his work table also serves as a counter to put things on and work on. We have two tall bookcases for books and magazines - mostly craft, but my recipe books are also here (again, remember this is next to the kitchen) and there is a collection of girls books I have and I keep it here as husband needed most of my bookcase in our office/library and there are some shelves along one wall which holds items we have made.
Lastly, of what I will mention right now, we have a big piece of furniture which I do not know what to call. It is divided in two - one side has shelves with full length doors in front of them and the other side has shelves with 2 small drawers at the bottom. The plan is to take the doors off and then plastic boxes of supplies can be turned depthwise - as they are on the other side of the unit - and smaller boxes put next to them - ditto.
When we had the bedbugs I had to heat all of the cut fabric in the dryer on high heat for 50 minutes and then bag them in sealed plastic bags. It was a mess. Between the fabric and personal fabric items I filled over 60 bags of fabric items. The thought of returning the fabric to the drawers was overwhelming. I finally decided to do 10 pieces a day. Husband pointed out that 10 pieces is not much - I replied that it is 10 pieces put away more than before. Day by day I did this. Some days it went well and I put away more than 10 pieces - other days there was just no time. Within a month and a half to 2 months - the fabric was put away - neater and better organized than before and I had done something I always planned to do - I cut a piece of each fabric and made a swatch card by gluing the piece of fabric to half a 3.5x5 inch index card. I then put the cards into the plastic sleeves made to hold baseball cards in a looseleaf book. (The looseleaf book dates back to high school.) We can now look through the book for fabric when need it. It is marked with the purpose the fabric was bought for, where it is located, and how much we have (all in pencil so it can be changed as needed). I also have a diagram in the front of the looseleaf book with the dressers, a number I gave to each drawer, and generally what is in each drawer to make it easier to find.
I sorted ribbon. I sorted lace. I bagged pompoms. I put all of the weaving, knitting, and crocheting and related stuff on one shelf in the unnamed shelf unit. I made a box with assorted general crafts. I made a box of buttons. I sorted findings for leatherwork into a sectional box (with a note where I stored spare in the basement). I was progressing along well. I used the dining room table covered over to protect it, some wood crates we used at craft shows to hold up the shelves, plastic boxes and such to sort and store craft supplies.
Then I hit a snag. We had a tall thin set of plastic drawers. They never worked well - any weight in them was too much. We decided to replace it with a new and better made dresser. We started looking. We could not get too wide a dresser as one of the bookcases faces the side of the dresser and we have to have room to walk in front of the bookcase to have access to the shelves. It took us about a year to find a dresser. We bought one in the children’s section of Ikea. We assembled it and set it up. I started figuring out what to put in it. Top drawer - in sectional dividers - scissors and small hand tools (and over the years it has also accumulated personal stuff I have to deal with), next drawer - paints, markers, inks, crayons color pencils, another drawer husband’s paper cutting scissors and paper, a drawer with pieces of felt in it. It was going so well.
Then we had mice in the (again, adjacent) kitchen. I carefully sanitized most of the cleaning supplies and put them in some of the cartons I had been using for sorting craft supplies and they ended up in front of the new dresser - leaving supplies unstored and drawers empty and inaccessible. This went on for several years until I got around to cleaning out under the sink in the kitchen this past year and moved the kitchen stuff back in place.
Now I could go back to organizing. In the interim we, of course, needed the dining room so supplies and what they were in were stored back in the studio willy nilly - filling up space and blocking things.
Two weeks ago husband was again talking about a weaving book “we” own. He wanted it as it contained instructions on how to make a certain type of small loom he wanted to make. I was sick and tired of hearing about this magic, missing book, so at 3 in the morning, I moved the crates and so on that were stashed in front of the bookcase facing the new dresser. I got everything out from in front of the bookcase and found the “weaving section” - 3 books. (I had done a lot of work at sorting and organizing in the studio before I got stumped at continuing.) I gave him the book that seemed to be what he was looking for and it was - yay for me. It did not have the directions he wanted for the small loom. Oh, well.
Well, now we had crates and other items out blocking space in the room. I went through the crates and they had much less in them than I thought and in one evening they were emptied out of everything which did not belong in them (table covers for craft shows were left in them). The next thing to do was to put them away.
The crates and a variety of other items store under my work table - far enough in to be out of my way when sitting at the table as they are rarely used. (The table itself is covered with stuff to be sorted and stored.) I figured that I would take out the plastic boxes under the table which “I knew” held the small bears I had made, store the crates, and put back the boxes - easy, peasy - half hour, 45 minutes at most. I bet you can guess what is coming -
I pulled out the boxes and put them on husband’s studio table. (His table is empty as he has been drying items he weaves on it.) I found out that most of the boxes had items other than I thought they did. Some years ago we had bought square and rectangular gift boxes for pens and jewelry which husband made to sell. They did not sell well. We have since been using the square boxes in shipping out some other items he makes and have been running out of the square boxes. One of these plastic boxes had some of the turned items in it - I combined some of the items which were in square boxes into 2 rectangular boxes - hmmm, 4 more boxes he could use. I then took the carton which had the jewelry pieces in the gift boxes and combined same into many less rectangular boxes- for storage - and ended up with a good number of square boxes. I also found that this way all of the small turned items fit in the one plastic box for storage (bowls, plates, etc. are in another carton). I then managed to combine 3 cartons of boxes into one as enough had been taken out and one also used to hold the jewelry - what a great change in storage space! (The 2 empty cartons went out to the porch for recycling - one was used for last week’s recycling and the other will be shortly be used for same.
I then climbed under my table and stored the crates, the plastic boxes, and some other craft show display items under the table - 2 plus hours work - but what a difference. What a great feeling of getting something done. I went on to clear some smaller areas and put the excess stuff away.
Now, I have mentioned in the past that we do 1770's reenacting. Husband is looking for something to do at events - he used to be commander, but no longer is and can now do what he wants instead of needing to run events. He needs a small, period looking table for several of his ideas. The table has to be able to be taken apart for storage and in transit. He decided the best way would be to use screw in legs which are available at home/lumber stores even though these are definitely not correct to the period, but made properly it would just look like a small table with legs. (What does this have to do with organizing - just wait and see.)
We went out the day after I had stored the crates and boxes away to find legs that looked right. He saw the price of the legs and realized that it would cost much more to make the table than he had planned - he had to get wood for the table top and the screw pieces also. Then I said magic words - “When I was under the table last night putting stuff away I had to move 2 sets of those legs.” He could not figure out why we had them - I reminded him that he had made a table for a knitting machine - decades ago - but neither of us can remember what the other set of legs is for. I was pretty sure one set of the legs was definitely passable for the purpose.
So, we went home and, yes, I had to take back out most of what I stored away the night before. This time I was smart - I handed him my chair so it was out of the way and I did not need to deal with it. (Notice when I am organizing and cleaning it is “me” doing it and he is scarce - when he needs table legs it is “we” doing it and he is “helping” me.) Well the legs were fine and then I had to store everything else back - again.
The other night - now that I have access to the bookcase - I sorted needlework magazines which I have just been fitting in on top of books when I did not have access. Most of them went into the magazine cases we have, I need 2-3 more magazine cases and, yes, I have decided some magazines I no longer need for reference and have started looking through them for any articles I want to keep and putting the rest out for recycling.
He had mentioned that one issue of the magazines I had and was sorting was suppose to have an article on weaving. As I was going through I noticed that one of them had weaving on the cover - yes, it was the one he wanted. The craft magazines are now sorted by date. Many of them have previously had their tables of contents scanned into the computer to make searching for an article or subject easier. Now with access I will one day be able to scan the rest.
Yes, progress is finally being made again!
Have you been working on any organizing projects and finally making progress?
We set up the studio to suit our needs. We each have a 5 ft by 2 ½ foot office type table to work on. The tables sit back to back so if needed we have a 5 ft x 5ft space to work on - the tables are, for some reason, about an inch different in height, but generally that is not a problem if we need space. I have a bridge table in the corner of the room which abuts the table. When I used to make a lot of baby quilts it worked well to hold them up while I stitching them. It also is good to hold supplies and stuff next to me. I have two stacks of small plastic drawer units to hold ideas in progress, spare spools of thread, etc. There is a large 3 drawer plastic chest underneath with my sewing supplies and items to make small bears I used to make a lot of. Husband just had his table until a few years ago, after the bed bugs when I was trying to better organize the room, I added a 2 shelf plastic unit to hold items he needs more often than others next to him along the wall.
We have husband’s long dresser from his bedroom when he was a boy at the ends of the tables (the other ends are against the wall). Drawers hold embroidery supplies and pieces - completed and waiting to be made, miniature punch needle - ditto, wood turning parts and assembly tools, lucets, wooden games husband makes, some fancy batting and iron on glue and a pasta maker (well it is right off our kitchen and no place else was large enough). On top of it we have a 3 drawer unit which has a drawer each for items either of us is working on and a drawer of glues - all kinds of glues. (If we need glue in the house we know to look for it here.) There are an assortment of paper cutters - sliding ones, guillotine type ones, etc. There is also something called an Ellison machine - what is used in schools to cut letters, pictures, etc. to decorate classrooms.
We have 2 other dressers which we bought over the years which hold fabric - we have a lot of fabric. These are the ones which are cut pieces - the bolts are in the basement. We also have a dresser/cabinet combination - also husband’s from when he was a boy - which holds unstarted skeins of embroidery floss (Walmart discontinued them some years ago and we bought 2 of each color they had - since then they have brought them back) and other assorted needlework threads. The fabric dresser behind husband’s chair at his work table also serves as a counter to put things on and work on. We have two tall bookcases for books and magazines - mostly craft, but my recipe books are also here (again, remember this is next to the kitchen) and there is a collection of girls books I have and I keep it here as husband needed most of my bookcase in our office/library and there are some shelves along one wall which holds items we have made.
Lastly, of what I will mention right now, we have a big piece of furniture which I do not know what to call. It is divided in two - one side has shelves with full length doors in front of them and the other side has shelves with 2 small drawers at the bottom. The plan is to take the doors off and then plastic boxes of supplies can be turned depthwise - as they are on the other side of the unit - and smaller boxes put next to them - ditto.
When we had the bedbugs I had to heat all of the cut fabric in the dryer on high heat for 50 minutes and then bag them in sealed plastic bags. It was a mess. Between the fabric and personal fabric items I filled over 60 bags of fabric items. The thought of returning the fabric to the drawers was overwhelming. I finally decided to do 10 pieces a day. Husband pointed out that 10 pieces is not much - I replied that it is 10 pieces put away more than before. Day by day I did this. Some days it went well and I put away more than 10 pieces - other days there was just no time. Within a month and a half to 2 months - the fabric was put away - neater and better organized than before and I had done something I always planned to do - I cut a piece of each fabric and made a swatch card by gluing the piece of fabric to half a 3.5x5 inch index card. I then put the cards into the plastic sleeves made to hold baseball cards in a looseleaf book. (The looseleaf book dates back to high school.) We can now look through the book for fabric when need it. It is marked with the purpose the fabric was bought for, where it is located, and how much we have (all in pencil so it can be changed as needed). I also have a diagram in the front of the looseleaf book with the dressers, a number I gave to each drawer, and generally what is in each drawer to make it easier to find.
I sorted ribbon. I sorted lace. I bagged pompoms. I put all of the weaving, knitting, and crocheting and related stuff on one shelf in the unnamed shelf unit. I made a box with assorted general crafts. I made a box of buttons. I sorted findings for leatherwork into a sectional box (with a note where I stored spare in the basement). I was progressing along well. I used the dining room table covered over to protect it, some wood crates we used at craft shows to hold up the shelves, plastic boxes and such to sort and store craft supplies.
Then I hit a snag. We had a tall thin set of plastic drawers. They never worked well - any weight in them was too much. We decided to replace it with a new and better made dresser. We started looking. We could not get too wide a dresser as one of the bookcases faces the side of the dresser and we have to have room to walk in front of the bookcase to have access to the shelves. It took us about a year to find a dresser. We bought one in the children’s section of Ikea. We assembled it and set it up. I started figuring out what to put in it. Top drawer - in sectional dividers - scissors and small hand tools (and over the years it has also accumulated personal stuff I have to deal with), next drawer - paints, markers, inks, crayons color pencils, another drawer husband’s paper cutting scissors and paper, a drawer with pieces of felt in it. It was going so well.
Then we had mice in the (again, adjacent) kitchen. I carefully sanitized most of the cleaning supplies and put them in some of the cartons I had been using for sorting craft supplies and they ended up in front of the new dresser - leaving supplies unstored and drawers empty and inaccessible. This went on for several years until I got around to cleaning out under the sink in the kitchen this past year and moved the kitchen stuff back in place.
Now I could go back to organizing. In the interim we, of course, needed the dining room so supplies and what they were in were stored back in the studio willy nilly - filling up space and blocking things.
Two weeks ago husband was again talking about a weaving book “we” own. He wanted it as it contained instructions on how to make a certain type of small loom he wanted to make. I was sick and tired of hearing about this magic, missing book, so at 3 in the morning, I moved the crates and so on that were stashed in front of the bookcase facing the new dresser. I got everything out from in front of the bookcase and found the “weaving section” - 3 books. (I had done a lot of work at sorting and organizing in the studio before I got stumped at continuing.) I gave him the book that seemed to be what he was looking for and it was - yay for me. It did not have the directions he wanted for the small loom. Oh, well.
Well, now we had crates and other items out blocking space in the room. I went through the crates and they had much less in them than I thought and in one evening they were emptied out of everything which did not belong in them (table covers for craft shows were left in them). The next thing to do was to put them away.
The crates and a variety of other items store under my work table - far enough in to be out of my way when sitting at the table as they are rarely used. (The table itself is covered with stuff to be sorted and stored.) I figured that I would take out the plastic boxes under the table which “I knew” held the small bears I had made, store the crates, and put back the boxes - easy, peasy - half hour, 45 minutes at most. I bet you can guess what is coming -
I pulled out the boxes and put them on husband’s studio table. (His table is empty as he has been drying items he weaves on it.) I found out that most of the boxes had items other than I thought they did. Some years ago we had bought square and rectangular gift boxes for pens and jewelry which husband made to sell. They did not sell well. We have since been using the square boxes in shipping out some other items he makes and have been running out of the square boxes. One of these plastic boxes had some of the turned items in it - I combined some of the items which were in square boxes into 2 rectangular boxes - hmmm, 4 more boxes he could use. I then took the carton which had the jewelry pieces in the gift boxes and combined same into many less rectangular boxes- for storage - and ended up with a good number of square boxes. I also found that this way all of the small turned items fit in the one plastic box for storage (bowls, plates, etc. are in another carton). I then managed to combine 3 cartons of boxes into one as enough had been taken out and one also used to hold the jewelry - what a great change in storage space! (The 2 empty cartons went out to the porch for recycling - one was used for last week’s recycling and the other will be shortly be used for same.
I then climbed under my table and stored the crates, the plastic boxes, and some other craft show display items under the table - 2 plus hours work - but what a difference. What a great feeling of getting something done. I went on to clear some smaller areas and put the excess stuff away.
Now, I have mentioned in the past that we do 1770's reenacting. Husband is looking for something to do at events - he used to be commander, but no longer is and can now do what he wants instead of needing to run events. He needs a small, period looking table for several of his ideas. The table has to be able to be taken apart for storage and in transit. He decided the best way would be to use screw in legs which are available at home/lumber stores even though these are definitely not correct to the period, but made properly it would just look like a small table with legs. (What does this have to do with organizing - just wait and see.)
We went out the day after I had stored the crates and boxes away to find legs that looked right. He saw the price of the legs and realized that it would cost much more to make the table than he had planned - he had to get wood for the table top and the screw pieces also. Then I said magic words - “When I was under the table last night putting stuff away I had to move 2 sets of those legs.” He could not figure out why we had them - I reminded him that he had made a table for a knitting machine - decades ago - but neither of us can remember what the other set of legs is for. I was pretty sure one set of the legs was definitely passable for the purpose.
So, we went home and, yes, I had to take back out most of what I stored away the night before. This time I was smart - I handed him my chair so it was out of the way and I did not need to deal with it. (Notice when I am organizing and cleaning it is “me” doing it and he is scarce - when he needs table legs it is “we” doing it and he is “helping” me.) Well the legs were fine and then I had to store everything else back - again.
The other night - now that I have access to the bookcase - I sorted needlework magazines which I have just been fitting in on top of books when I did not have access. Most of them went into the magazine cases we have, I need 2-3 more magazine cases and, yes, I have decided some magazines I no longer need for reference and have started looking through them for any articles I want to keep and putting the rest out for recycling.
He had mentioned that one issue of the magazines I had and was sorting was suppose to have an article on weaving. As I was going through I noticed that one of them had weaving on the cover - yes, it was the one he wanted. The craft magazines are now sorted by date. Many of them have previously had their tables of contents scanned into the computer to make searching for an article or subject easier. Now with access I will one day be able to scan the rest.
Yes, progress is finally being made again!
Have you been working on any organizing projects and finally making progress?
Thursday, May 19, 2016
I HATE SHEETS
I have a secret. There is one thing I really, really hate in housekeeping. SHEETS! I hate washing them. I hate folding them. I hate making the bed with them. I don’t know why I hate them, but I do. I don’t mind cleaning the toilets - I don’t consider it a fun activity, but I don’t mind - but sheets!!!!
One thing is that I am short just over 5 feet tall and therefore have short arms and I have to stretch them waaay out to hold the sheets. Our bed is a queen size, but I don’t like twin size either. Pillow cases are fine. Mattress pads are fine. Strangely even blankets and quilts are fine, but not sheets.
Growing up mom made our beds for us after we left for school - we usually used a quilt on the bed and mom would also put a bedspread on the bed. When we were older mom went back to work and we were expected to make our beds - the bedspreads were no longer used, but a quilt is easy to spread out and mom still changed the sheets.
Then I got married. We got an apartment. We bought two sets of sheets and pillowcases and blanket. It was up to me to make up the bed before we moved in - as well as after. My husband grew up in a home with a top sheet and a blanket tucked in - we did not have a top sheet when I was growing up and we agreed to a compromise - we would get a blanket and top sheets and when the blanket was replaced we would get a quilt - and use a top sheet with it. Our bedding has changed over the ensuing 37 years and we used a quilt for quite some time, until we had bed bugs - we then read that it was hard to heat a quilt in a dryer enough to make sure that any bed bugs died and we switched back to a blanket - in winter 2 blankets. Early on we had something to do and it was change the bedding day - and the other set was in the laundry (I had to go to a laundry up the road to do the laundry then and had not gone.) So we bought a third set - and have remained with 3 sets ever since - 1 on the bed, 1 in the laundry, and 1 waiting to be used.
Because I hate sheets I would plan to change the bedding in the morning and then not do so and plan to change it at night. At night we were too tired, so the bedding did not get changed as often as it should. . I finally came up with an idea - I strip the bed in the morning, the bed gets to air out, and I make it up before we go to sleep - I have to or we can’t go to sleep. This has worked well and also lets the mattress air out that day.
I was changing the bedding on Mondays for decades. Then, after husband was home full time, we started going to a classic film showing on Mondays at 1 pm ($2 each, popcorn and soda included if one wanted same - we were among the youngest there). This made a problem with Monday bedding change, so it was moved to Tuesday where it remains, even though the films have since been discontinued.
Weekly I change the sheets and pillowcases. On the first change of the month I also change the mattress pad (we own 2) and the underneath pillow cases - you know, the ones with zippers that are inside the nice looking cases. Since the bed bugs our mattress and box spring is each sealed in a bed bug proof case and our pillows have a 3rd pillow case inside the zipper cases which is also bed bug proof. The bed bug covers on the mattress and pillows are not normally changed, but I have just bought new bed bug pillow case covers as several years of use and summer sweat have made them unpleasant to look at. They have been heated in our bed bug heater and will be washed with this week’s load of sheets and pillowcases to be used the start of next month.
The reason I thought of this subject for today is that I tend to wash the bedding as the last load for the week and, once again, I did not get around to folding the sheets for an entire week - just in time to be able to do the laundry again.
I have figured out over the years that sheets do not have to be perfectly folded as if they are to inspected. If there are wrinkles in it - I don’t care. If the edges don’t meet perfectly - I don’t care. The fitted sheet - I match the corners (trying hard to figure out which way the sheet is long and which way it is wide so I will unfold it as needed to make the bed), then fold in thirds as well as it folds and then in thirds the opposite way - again just as well as it folds - to be stored. I fold the top flat sheet by finding the corners of the larger hem and matching them, following the sides to the bottom and matching those corners and then gripping all 4 corners with one had and following the sides to new middle fold and then on from there. When I make the bed it all - more or less - unfolds to match how it has to go on the bed.
The bedding is kept in a linen closet just outside our bedroom door in the hall. I have a hanging wire shelf which holds the pillowcases and a second one which holds older pillow cases which are still good from sheets we no longer use in case spares are needed - we threw out the sheets we had when we had the bedbugs as there was evidence of the bedbugs on them. Next to the stored sheets is a roll of paper towels (unrelated to this, but it is there and should be mentioned) and then the spare mattress pad is on the shelf with the spare under pillow case, zipper covers on top of it. Our sheets and pillowcases are now white or off white since the bed bugs. The shelf with the pillow cases hangs just below the sheets. The mattress pads are the type without sides and with elastic on the corners.
We also own a set of twin bed sheets and spare pillowcase as we have a twin bed in our spare room (I may have mentioned “the teddy bears’ room”) which was intended as guest room for our moms, but has not been used other than by niece and nephew once when they were young and two more times by my niece when she was junior high age. Some of the teddy bears and dolls do enjoy sitting on it. I keep a thin quilt (what we called a summer quilt in my family) on the bed over the mattress pad and made it up when someone was using it and then stripped the bed and washed the bedding - then stored it in the same linen closet as our bedding.
Several years ago when we bought our tiny RV I had to buy bedding for it also - more sheets. That bed is very unusual and has to be assembled to be used - it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to make up. It makes up into a short king size bed, but I make it as 2 twins immediately adjacent to each other. I will post at some future point (probably when I make it up the first time this year) about it and the heck of doing making it up - it is like a comedy routine.
There is another use for sheets that also makes work for me they can be used as fairly cheap fabric. We have cut them up and made table covers for our tables for craft shows. We needed some extra curtains for our RV for quicker use on the road (so no one can see in our windows when are stopped and not in the RV) - black sheets worked very well. Older sheets are used as covers over tables which are not ours at craft shows and demonstrations and also to cover over the items on tables in situations such as this when the tables are left for the night.
So, despite my hatred of sheets I have to spend part of my life dealing with them and have resigned myself to doing so, trying to make it as easy as possible.
Do you have a chore you hate to do? What is it and how do you deal with it?
One thing is that I am short just over 5 feet tall and therefore have short arms and I have to stretch them waaay out to hold the sheets. Our bed is a queen size, but I don’t like twin size either. Pillow cases are fine. Mattress pads are fine. Strangely even blankets and quilts are fine, but not sheets.
Growing up mom made our beds for us after we left for school - we usually used a quilt on the bed and mom would also put a bedspread on the bed. When we were older mom went back to work and we were expected to make our beds - the bedspreads were no longer used, but a quilt is easy to spread out and mom still changed the sheets.
Then I got married. We got an apartment. We bought two sets of sheets and pillowcases and blanket. It was up to me to make up the bed before we moved in - as well as after. My husband grew up in a home with a top sheet and a blanket tucked in - we did not have a top sheet when I was growing up and we agreed to a compromise - we would get a blanket and top sheets and when the blanket was replaced we would get a quilt - and use a top sheet with it. Our bedding has changed over the ensuing 37 years and we used a quilt for quite some time, until we had bed bugs - we then read that it was hard to heat a quilt in a dryer enough to make sure that any bed bugs died and we switched back to a blanket - in winter 2 blankets. Early on we had something to do and it was change the bedding day - and the other set was in the laundry (I had to go to a laundry up the road to do the laundry then and had not gone.) So we bought a third set - and have remained with 3 sets ever since - 1 on the bed, 1 in the laundry, and 1 waiting to be used.
Because I hate sheets I would plan to change the bedding in the morning and then not do so and plan to change it at night. At night we were too tired, so the bedding did not get changed as often as it should. . I finally came up with an idea - I strip the bed in the morning, the bed gets to air out, and I make it up before we go to sleep - I have to or we can’t go to sleep. This has worked well and also lets the mattress air out that day.
I was changing the bedding on Mondays for decades. Then, after husband was home full time, we started going to a classic film showing on Mondays at 1 pm ($2 each, popcorn and soda included if one wanted same - we were among the youngest there). This made a problem with Monday bedding change, so it was moved to Tuesday where it remains, even though the films have since been discontinued.
Weekly I change the sheets and pillowcases. On the first change of the month I also change the mattress pad (we own 2) and the underneath pillow cases - you know, the ones with zippers that are inside the nice looking cases. Since the bed bugs our mattress and box spring is each sealed in a bed bug proof case and our pillows have a 3rd pillow case inside the zipper cases which is also bed bug proof. The bed bug covers on the mattress and pillows are not normally changed, but I have just bought new bed bug pillow case covers as several years of use and summer sweat have made them unpleasant to look at. They have been heated in our bed bug heater and will be washed with this week’s load of sheets and pillowcases to be used the start of next month.
The reason I thought of this subject for today is that I tend to wash the bedding as the last load for the week and, once again, I did not get around to folding the sheets for an entire week - just in time to be able to do the laundry again.
I have figured out over the years that sheets do not have to be perfectly folded as if they are to inspected. If there are wrinkles in it - I don’t care. If the edges don’t meet perfectly - I don’t care. The fitted sheet - I match the corners (trying hard to figure out which way the sheet is long and which way it is wide so I will unfold it as needed to make the bed), then fold in thirds as well as it folds and then in thirds the opposite way - again just as well as it folds - to be stored. I fold the top flat sheet by finding the corners of the larger hem and matching them, following the sides to the bottom and matching those corners and then gripping all 4 corners with one had and following the sides to new middle fold and then on from there. When I make the bed it all - more or less - unfolds to match how it has to go on the bed.
The bedding is kept in a linen closet just outside our bedroom door in the hall. I have a hanging wire shelf which holds the pillowcases and a second one which holds older pillow cases which are still good from sheets we no longer use in case spares are needed - we threw out the sheets we had when we had the bedbugs as there was evidence of the bedbugs on them. Next to the stored sheets is a roll of paper towels (unrelated to this, but it is there and should be mentioned) and then the spare mattress pad is on the shelf with the spare under pillow case, zipper covers on top of it. Our sheets and pillowcases are now white or off white since the bed bugs. The shelf with the pillow cases hangs just below the sheets. The mattress pads are the type without sides and with elastic on the corners.
We also own a set of twin bed sheets and spare pillowcase as we have a twin bed in our spare room (I may have mentioned “the teddy bears’ room”) which was intended as guest room for our moms, but has not been used other than by niece and nephew once when they were young and two more times by my niece when she was junior high age. Some of the teddy bears and dolls do enjoy sitting on it. I keep a thin quilt (what we called a summer quilt in my family) on the bed over the mattress pad and made it up when someone was using it and then stripped the bed and washed the bedding - then stored it in the same linen closet as our bedding.
Several years ago when we bought our tiny RV I had to buy bedding for it also - more sheets. That bed is very unusual and has to be assembled to be used - it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to make up. It makes up into a short king size bed, but I make it as 2 twins immediately adjacent to each other. I will post at some future point (probably when I make it up the first time this year) about it and the heck of doing making it up - it is like a comedy routine.
There is another use for sheets that also makes work for me they can be used as fairly cheap fabric. We have cut them up and made table covers for our tables for craft shows. We needed some extra curtains for our RV for quicker use on the road (so no one can see in our windows when are stopped and not in the RV) - black sheets worked very well. Older sheets are used as covers over tables which are not ours at craft shows and demonstrations and also to cover over the items on tables in situations such as this when the tables are left for the night.
So, despite my hatred of sheets I have to spend part of my life dealing with them and have resigned myself to doing so, trying to make it as easy as possible.
Do you have a chore you hate to do? What is it and how do you deal with it?
Thursday, March 17, 2016
A REPEAT OF LAST WEEK
This week has not been much better. Things keep going wrong.
People who know me think that I am very organized. If they read this or saw the inside of my house, they would be surprised. It is weeks like last week and this week that make it disorganized. Okay, every week is bad, but these have been particularly problematic and I know it could be much worse with real problems instead of just annoyances..
In the past few weeks we spent 2 days looking for a couple of pieces of small lumber for husband to make something for his loom - I mean really small lumber - 1/4 inch x 6 inches (which means more like 5.5 inches in the world of lumber) x 4 feet. We finally found 2 pieces which were not skewed, warped, broken, split, etc. They were at our house for 3 days - and warped. So more time lost returning them and now he has no wood.
We also spent a different 2 days shopping for white bath towels - needed large ones, but cheap as they are to roll weaving projects in when the projects are washed after they are finished, this is to get the excess water out of them instead of using the spin cycle on the washing machine as that seems to be what made the problem in the last project. We then went out a 3rd day to actually buy the towels, plus the time spent at home heating them in our “suitcase heater” (just in case there are any bedbugs in them, we are crazy about this since we had them) and then washing and drying them. They are awaiting the current project.
I had to prepare a corporation tax extension for a client and so that it was out yesterday (the 15th) to the governments. This is not the return I finished and sent out last week - that one arrived last Friday and the client sent it out after a telephone call to discuss it and make sure she knew what she was doing. For good measure sales taxes are due in this state - not just the regular quarterly ones, but also the annual ones (for companies with very few sales) on the 20th. I have done two of them. I went to the client with last week’s corporation tax return today and calculated her sales taxes. Now I have to do it again online as they are required to be filed on same, and there is no Internet at the client. I prefer to go to her on Thursdays, but had to go today (Wednesday) as I have the sales tax deadline and tomorrow is - St Patrick’s Day in New York City. I learned the hard way by going into Manhattan once - and only once - on St Patrick’s Day - I will never do it again. I was stuck in the parking garage for 45 minutes waiting for enough people to leave so tha the 5 cars ahead of me would get spaces and then one more for me. After I file her sales taxes I can start preparing individual returns for clients.
Husband had a new weaving project to set up on the loom. He went to set up the warp (the long strands that run the length of the piece and he will weave over - think “warp speed ahead” and envision long straight lines pointing ahead, that is how I remember which it is) on Saturday afternoon. The yarn he planned to use we found out is not usable for same as it was too slippery. He pulled an older yarn from the basement to use (this is from decades ago and never intended by us for this future purpose). As he rolled each skein into a ball he found out that it was junk yarn and there were problems - so that’s why the huge bag of yarn was only a dollar? So - off to the store for more yarn. Monday he started setting up the loom with the new yarn - this takes my help - more time lost from what I need to do - and in one spot it has the same problem as the yarn it replaced! He is working around it. The loom was finally set up on Tuesday and I helped him get started on finishing the leading edge of it tonight and now he should not need my help with it for a few days - I hope.
We went to the supermarket on Monday to buy soda on sale. They are out of the soda which is on sale. We went to another store in the chain yesterday to try again - they also had none. Did no one notice they were about to have a sale and make sure that the stores were stocked? Just for good measure husband went back today - still none - and driving home from NYC I stopped at one near the NYC border to see if maybe they had some soda there - no, not there either. The sale ends tomorrow (Thursday), but we did get rain checks - a bottle and a half of soda left for us.
In between all of this I am trying to catch up on what was sitting around waiting to be done from last week. Okay, even further back. I managed to pack most of my Christmas bear figurines in the living room this weekend (these are the ones that rotate monthly, not the bear village upstairs which is now long packed). There are still a bunch of them to pack - but the loom and new weaving project are set up in the room and I don’t want to drop and break the bears skirting around the loom nor do I want to bump the loom and ruin the project.
My cold is much better, but still here. So dealing with meals and dishes is still all off as I try to make meals in which I do not have to touch the actual food with my hands (just the packaging) and then wear plastic gloves to wash the dishes.
Plus of course the wonderfulness that is daylight savings time started last Sunday - throwing me, myself, off schedule. Plus I am not sure that all of the clocks, watches, and other items have been changed - oh wait, that is why the light timers are off and the lights are going on at the wrong time - darn, something else to do!
Again, hopefully, next week will be better and life will be more normal.
Do you have a problem with the time change? I know in other countries it has not happened yet and some places have, intelligently in my opinion, gotten rid of same.
People who know me think that I am very organized. If they read this or saw the inside of my house, they would be surprised. It is weeks like last week and this week that make it disorganized. Okay, every week is bad, but these have been particularly problematic and I know it could be much worse with real problems instead of just annoyances..
In the past few weeks we spent 2 days looking for a couple of pieces of small lumber for husband to make something for his loom - I mean really small lumber - 1/4 inch x 6 inches (which means more like 5.5 inches in the world of lumber) x 4 feet. We finally found 2 pieces which were not skewed, warped, broken, split, etc. They were at our house for 3 days - and warped. So more time lost returning them and now he has no wood.
We also spent a different 2 days shopping for white bath towels - needed large ones, but cheap as they are to roll weaving projects in when the projects are washed after they are finished, this is to get the excess water out of them instead of using the spin cycle on the washing machine as that seems to be what made the problem in the last project. We then went out a 3rd day to actually buy the towels, plus the time spent at home heating them in our “suitcase heater” (just in case there are any bedbugs in them, we are crazy about this since we had them) and then washing and drying them. They are awaiting the current project.
I had to prepare a corporation tax extension for a client and so that it was out yesterday (the 15th) to the governments. This is not the return I finished and sent out last week - that one arrived last Friday and the client sent it out after a telephone call to discuss it and make sure she knew what she was doing. For good measure sales taxes are due in this state - not just the regular quarterly ones, but also the annual ones (for companies with very few sales) on the 20th. I have done two of them. I went to the client with last week’s corporation tax return today and calculated her sales taxes. Now I have to do it again online as they are required to be filed on same, and there is no Internet at the client. I prefer to go to her on Thursdays, but had to go today (Wednesday) as I have the sales tax deadline and tomorrow is - St Patrick’s Day in New York City. I learned the hard way by going into Manhattan once - and only once - on St Patrick’s Day - I will never do it again. I was stuck in the parking garage for 45 minutes waiting for enough people to leave so tha the 5 cars ahead of me would get spaces and then one more for me. After I file her sales taxes I can start preparing individual returns for clients.
Husband had a new weaving project to set up on the loom. He went to set up the warp (the long strands that run the length of the piece and he will weave over - think “warp speed ahead” and envision long straight lines pointing ahead, that is how I remember which it is) on Saturday afternoon. The yarn he planned to use we found out is not usable for same as it was too slippery. He pulled an older yarn from the basement to use (this is from decades ago and never intended by us for this future purpose). As he rolled each skein into a ball he found out that it was junk yarn and there were problems - so that’s why the huge bag of yarn was only a dollar? So - off to the store for more yarn. Monday he started setting up the loom with the new yarn - this takes my help - more time lost from what I need to do - and in one spot it has the same problem as the yarn it replaced! He is working around it. The loom was finally set up on Tuesday and I helped him get started on finishing the leading edge of it tonight and now he should not need my help with it for a few days - I hope.
We went to the supermarket on Monday to buy soda on sale. They are out of the soda which is on sale. We went to another store in the chain yesterday to try again - they also had none. Did no one notice they were about to have a sale and make sure that the stores were stocked? Just for good measure husband went back today - still none - and driving home from NYC I stopped at one near the NYC border to see if maybe they had some soda there - no, not there either. The sale ends tomorrow (Thursday), but we did get rain checks - a bottle and a half of soda left for us.
In between all of this I am trying to catch up on what was sitting around waiting to be done from last week. Okay, even further back. I managed to pack most of my Christmas bear figurines in the living room this weekend (these are the ones that rotate monthly, not the bear village upstairs which is now long packed). There are still a bunch of them to pack - but the loom and new weaving project are set up in the room and I don’t want to drop and break the bears skirting around the loom nor do I want to bump the loom and ruin the project.
My cold is much better, but still here. So dealing with meals and dishes is still all off as I try to make meals in which I do not have to touch the actual food with my hands (just the packaging) and then wear plastic gloves to wash the dishes.
Plus of course the wonderfulness that is daylight savings time started last Sunday - throwing me, myself, off schedule. Plus I am not sure that all of the clocks, watches, and other items have been changed - oh wait, that is why the light timers are off and the lights are going on at the wrong time - darn, something else to do!
Again, hopefully, next week will be better and life will be more normal.
Do you have a problem with the time change? I know in other countries it has not happened yet and some places have, intelligently in my opinion, gotten rid of same.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
CHRISTMAS MOSTLY STORED AWAY
We put up our Christmas decorations in the house late, so we never rush to take them down. It used to sit around and around and finally I would deal with it - sometimes in March (one year in April, but that was because our garage door froze to the ground and we could not get into it until there was a thaw to get out the boxes to pack in - since then the boxes stay in the house after being unpacked). So after years of it being too soon (to us) to take down decorations and then it was much past when they should have been taken down, we set a date. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered on the 3rd Monday in January - we chose same as when to start taking down the Christmas decorations - the date has no significance to doing so, but it is a fixed time around when we want to do so and the holiday publicity reminds us.
So, that Monday was the day to start. This is for the inside decorations. The outside ones come down based on the weather - it needs to be warm enough to take them down and we are not going to climb through snow to do so. The day before was a COLD day, but snow is expected for the coming weekend, possibly a lot, so we took down the outside lights and put them in the garage (which is also husband’s woodworking shop). We did not wrap them up and pack them as I could not feel 3 of my fingers and needed to warm up. We packed them the next day as it was warmer.
I brought up one of the storage boxes for the inside ornaments - specifically one for ornaments from our main Christmas tree - a few days before. I had planned to bring up the others right away, but I realized that there wasn’t room to bring them up as husband’s loom and related items are spread across the living room and the coffee table moved to accommodate his loom work. I put the box under the coffee table - any place else and we would not be able to walk in the room - until the day after I was suppose to start.
I took out the box, pushed aside the loom items on the sofa (any of this sound like your life?) and opened the box. I started taking ornaments off the tree - not a lot, but a start. The ornaments went right into their storage boxes that were in the box, while I also pulled ones which I have embroidered, off the tree and set them on a chair (which has been decorated for the season an embroidered Christmas throw pillow I made some years ago) to pack later. It is the starting which is hard for me and now it is started.
We used to pack our ornaments in cartons which we had accumulated over the years which originally held reams of paper for the computer, printer, etc. After having bed bugs we wanted them packed in something which sealed better, as well as the fact that corrugated cardboard is something that bed bugs like, so we bought large plastic boxes which lock closed on the ends. We have been storing most of the ornaments in the rafters of our garage. These new boxes had to go through the rafters one end up and then turn. In addition my husband does not like climbing up to get them down - he has to clear off a work table (yes, he is like me and there is disorganization in his workshop) and stand on it and lean over to move the boxes around. The boxes were not all that light, even after I rearranged the contents so lighter and heavier items were more mixed together than before. The need to rearrange the contents was annoying to me as I had the boxes originally packed so that the nicest ornaments came out of one box and I worked my way down to the fill in ornaments in the last of the tree ornament boxes, the general “in the house” decorations were in their own 2 boxes, etc. Now they were all mixed together to distribute the weight. Not at all convenient for unpacking and repacking.
The last 2 winters we had so much snow - continuously (last winter we went through a month or more of major snowstorms every 2-3 days) - that the decorations were packed into their boxes, but by the time we could move the boxes to the (detached) garage for storage it was almost summer and we left them stacked where the main tree had been - which left all of the furniture which gets moved around to fit in the Christmas trees and such also not put where they belonged.
I have come up with a solution. I found a spot where the boxes will fit in our basement. We have a small “closet” with our gas meter in it and there is space between the side of same and the shelves holding bolts of fabric where it looked like the boxes would fit. I cleared out the area - what looks like used plastic drop clothes, and empty bolt cardboard centers (kept in case we ever needed to wrap large cuts of fabric onto them - like we ever would) with the plastic that had been over the original fabric also kept - were all thrown out - the cardboard put in for recycling. I moved the remaining items out of the area. I found not only do the boxes fit the space, but the widest dimension of the boxes fit so they will fit in more compactly then I thought - good if I they do not all fit in one stack (we have low ceilings even in the main part of the house). I also found out that I had more of certain preprinted panel baby quilt fabric - I used to make and sell panel baby quilts) that I thought I had no more of. I am not interested in making a quilt, but I had finished two embroidered teddy bear pieces from a kit and wanted to make 2 other pieces to go with them and had envisioned embroidering the decision two of the bears from the quilt panel - one each - on matching squares to make a 4 square hanging piece, so by cleaning up a bit I now have the teddy bears to copy, which thought I no longer had - a bit of a reward for the cleaning.
Now I am able to store the boxes in the basement. Weather will not affect being able to store them. I will not need husband to be able to access them and he will not need to go climbing up. Weight does not matter as much anymore and I will be able to repack everything as it used to be.
The outside Christmas lights were also stored in the garage and needed, even more dangerously, for him to climb on a ladder and then hand the box down to me while balancing on the ladder. They can now go where the other ornaments used to be, still a climb, but safer. I suggested we split them into 2 smaller boxes to deal with the rafters problem and make them ligher - maybe even switching with 2 smaller boxes I had some decorations in and I would take the large box for the decorations in exchange for the smaller ones. He will also have more room to store wood in his shop. I cleaned the large box from the lights well and this idea worked - 2 smaller, lighter boxes of outdoor Christmas lights - stored in the rafters of the garage - and a nice large box for wool.
Better all around such a simple idea.
Have you taken down your Christmas decorations and tree? Has everything been put away yet?
I have since taken down and stored the rest of the ornaments from the main and studio tree as well as stored the Christmas decorations from the main floor of the house. After finishing this I found a Christmas doll who had evaded me. She will be put into the “soft” decorations box shortly. I also took down and stored the dining room tree and it’s ornaments. It’s ornaments are all collectible brass ones from Colonial Williamsburg so they are being stored upstairs as they were before as I don’t want them in the damp basement.
Why publish this now? Well, missing from the above is putting away my (our?) little village of teddy bear figurines. We both love it so that it is always hard to put it away. This past week I spent 2 days packing up the little bears, their tree and some buildings (every teddy bear town needs a honey store, a church, a first aid office and a fruit store - right?).
I have been asked what a teddy bear village is. I had a large number of teddy bear ornaments and they were taking over our main Christmas tree. So we bought a table top tree and moved some of them to that tree and put it at the top of the stairs so it could also be seen from the main floor of the house. I then added some little bears I had - some on little ladders decorating the tree - and it just kept going. It is amazing how many (cheap) small bear figurines with a Christmas theme there are. Not all of them are specifically Christmas - there is a small band of bears playing at the church while others are singing. There are bears at a phone booth making a call (an inch tall). There is a polar bear helping himself to a certain cola which uses him for ads. There is a “craft” fair of bears with small craft like items. There is a gazebo in the park (as of 2014 it even has lights). There is a parade and bears watching the parade - well I guess you get the idea. Many, if not most people would think we are crazy, but we think it is cute.
Well, that means 95% of my Christmas stuff is stored. The only items left (other than the doll who hid) are some other bears that are displayed in the living room and could not be stored until the village was as they store in the box the village is on the top of.
Well, luckily I do a lot less for Easter. Unless we start doing an Easter teddy village - we are kicking around the idea of making it seasonal...
So, that Monday was the day to start. This is for the inside decorations. The outside ones come down based on the weather - it needs to be warm enough to take them down and we are not going to climb through snow to do so. The day before was a COLD day, but snow is expected for the coming weekend, possibly a lot, so we took down the outside lights and put them in the garage (which is also husband’s woodworking shop). We did not wrap them up and pack them as I could not feel 3 of my fingers and needed to warm up. We packed them the next day as it was warmer.
I brought up one of the storage boxes for the inside ornaments - specifically one for ornaments from our main Christmas tree - a few days before. I had planned to bring up the others right away, but I realized that there wasn’t room to bring them up as husband’s loom and related items are spread across the living room and the coffee table moved to accommodate his loom work. I put the box under the coffee table - any place else and we would not be able to walk in the room - until the day after I was suppose to start.
I took out the box, pushed aside the loom items on the sofa (any of this sound like your life?) and opened the box. I started taking ornaments off the tree - not a lot, but a start. The ornaments went right into their storage boxes that were in the box, while I also pulled ones which I have embroidered, off the tree and set them on a chair (which has been decorated for the season an embroidered Christmas throw pillow I made some years ago) to pack later. It is the starting which is hard for me and now it is started.
We used to pack our ornaments in cartons which we had accumulated over the years which originally held reams of paper for the computer, printer, etc. After having bed bugs we wanted them packed in something which sealed better, as well as the fact that corrugated cardboard is something that bed bugs like, so we bought large plastic boxes which lock closed on the ends. We have been storing most of the ornaments in the rafters of our garage. These new boxes had to go through the rafters one end up and then turn. In addition my husband does not like climbing up to get them down - he has to clear off a work table (yes, he is like me and there is disorganization in his workshop) and stand on it and lean over to move the boxes around. The boxes were not all that light, even after I rearranged the contents so lighter and heavier items were more mixed together than before. The need to rearrange the contents was annoying to me as I had the boxes originally packed so that the nicest ornaments came out of one box and I worked my way down to the fill in ornaments in the last of the tree ornament boxes, the general “in the house” decorations were in their own 2 boxes, etc. Now they were all mixed together to distribute the weight. Not at all convenient for unpacking and repacking.
The last 2 winters we had so much snow - continuously (last winter we went through a month or more of major snowstorms every 2-3 days) - that the decorations were packed into their boxes, but by the time we could move the boxes to the (detached) garage for storage it was almost summer and we left them stacked where the main tree had been - which left all of the furniture which gets moved around to fit in the Christmas trees and such also not put where they belonged.
I have come up with a solution. I found a spot where the boxes will fit in our basement. We have a small “closet” with our gas meter in it and there is space between the side of same and the shelves holding bolts of fabric where it looked like the boxes would fit. I cleared out the area - what looks like used plastic drop clothes, and empty bolt cardboard centers (kept in case we ever needed to wrap large cuts of fabric onto them - like we ever would) with the plastic that had been over the original fabric also kept - were all thrown out - the cardboard put in for recycling. I moved the remaining items out of the area. I found not only do the boxes fit the space, but the widest dimension of the boxes fit so they will fit in more compactly then I thought - good if I they do not all fit in one stack (we have low ceilings even in the main part of the house). I also found out that I had more of certain preprinted panel baby quilt fabric - I used to make and sell panel baby quilts) that I thought I had no more of. I am not interested in making a quilt, but I had finished two embroidered teddy bear pieces from a kit and wanted to make 2 other pieces to go with them and had envisioned embroidering the decision two of the bears from the quilt panel - one each - on matching squares to make a 4 square hanging piece, so by cleaning up a bit I now have the teddy bears to copy, which thought I no longer had - a bit of a reward for the cleaning.
Now I am able to store the boxes in the basement. Weather will not affect being able to store them. I will not need husband to be able to access them and he will not need to go climbing up. Weight does not matter as much anymore and I will be able to repack everything as it used to be.
The outside Christmas lights were also stored in the garage and needed, even more dangerously, for him to climb on a ladder and then hand the box down to me while balancing on the ladder. They can now go where the other ornaments used to be, still a climb, but safer. I suggested we split them into 2 smaller boxes to deal with the rafters problem and make them ligher - maybe even switching with 2 smaller boxes I had some decorations in and I would take the large box for the decorations in exchange for the smaller ones. He will also have more room to store wood in his shop. I cleaned the large box from the lights well and this idea worked - 2 smaller, lighter boxes of outdoor Christmas lights - stored in the rafters of the garage - and a nice large box for wool.
Better all around such a simple idea.
Have you taken down your Christmas decorations and tree? Has everything been put away yet?
I have since taken down and stored the rest of the ornaments from the main and studio tree as well as stored the Christmas decorations from the main floor of the house. After finishing this I found a Christmas doll who had evaded me. She will be put into the “soft” decorations box shortly. I also took down and stored the dining room tree and it’s ornaments. It’s ornaments are all collectible brass ones from Colonial Williamsburg so they are being stored upstairs as they were before as I don’t want them in the damp basement.
Why publish this now? Well, missing from the above is putting away my (our?) little village of teddy bear figurines. We both love it so that it is always hard to put it away. This past week I spent 2 days packing up the little bears, their tree and some buildings (every teddy bear town needs a honey store, a church, a first aid office and a fruit store - right?).
I have been asked what a teddy bear village is. I had a large number of teddy bear ornaments and they were taking over our main Christmas tree. So we bought a table top tree and moved some of them to that tree and put it at the top of the stairs so it could also be seen from the main floor of the house. I then added some little bears I had - some on little ladders decorating the tree - and it just kept going. It is amazing how many (cheap) small bear figurines with a Christmas theme there are. Not all of them are specifically Christmas - there is a small band of bears playing at the church while others are singing. There are bears at a phone booth making a call (an inch tall). There is a polar bear helping himself to a certain cola which uses him for ads. There is a “craft” fair of bears with small craft like items. There is a gazebo in the park (as of 2014 it even has lights). There is a parade and bears watching the parade - well I guess you get the idea. Many, if not most people would think we are crazy, but we think it is cute.
Well, that means 95% of my Christmas stuff is stored. The only items left (other than the doll who hid) are some other bears that are displayed in the living room and could not be stored until the village was as they store in the box the village is on the top of.
Well, luckily I do a lot less for Easter. Unless we start doing an Easter teddy village - we are kicking around the idea of making it seasonal...
Thursday, December 17, 2015
DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS - PART 2
Well in the last week I have managed to put out most of the Christmas decorations that go inside the house. I have learned over the years the order that the decorations have to be placed in - as well as the order they have to come down for storage. The decorations, their storage, placement, etc. need to be organized almost more than the house in general does or it will take too much time to put out and put away. I also have a system for storing the empty boxes in the basement (where they are not stored during the year), but it all depends on everything being done in the right order - putting up the decorations and taking them down. The trees are put up last and taken down first.
Our dining room is decorated, sort of, colonial. This means that the decorations are greens (plastic ones) and some bows. Decorating for the holiday was much simpler then. The decorations were natural - a few bits of greens, not many of them. We put small pieces of greens on the corners of picture frames, on the colonial style brass light fixture - with red bows, and a small wreath. There is a (fake) garland of greens on the front window. In a bowl on the dining room table I have some fake red berries in a bowl - they just look nice. Some candles and a small nativity my husband made decades ago finish the room.
The entryway also has a few small (fake) greens and a small glass Moravian star. I wrap the bottom section of our staircase with a (again, fake)garland of greens with red bows at the ends and in the middle.
The living room on the other hand, there is a bit much. There is a 3 piece teddy bear bell band which plays carols, 2 Christmas stocking holders waiting for stockings, 2 angels holding lights on a table, Lego Christmas figures - Santas, elves, snowman, soldier, a snowman I made years ago from a sock, and a santa my husband made, also decades ago, from paper. To be added to this after the tree is at least set up, will be an assortment of elves, Santas, and angels, ranging in size from about 3 inches tall to about 3 feet tall - the larger ones were gifts - they will stand together by the door to greet us when we walk in. I also will put out a Christmas pillow with embroideries (by me) on each side, a green garland across the back windows with a teddy bear Christmas picture (also embroidered by me) across the 2 back windows, and a Mrs.Rudolph Reindeer doll I made will sit comfortably in a chair. We usually put out 2 stockings each for us - one to use and one I embroidered for each of us. There are also some small stockings with (yes, again) plastic candy canes in them that we put out for show with the names of some of my dolls on them. A beaded tree I made once. Then at some point the trees will be done.
Our studio - behind the kitchen - has a small tree waiting to be decorated. It will get items we have made over the years.
Even the kitchen takes a hit and gets decorated - I change the decorative potholders (as opposed to the ones I use) to Christmas ones (yes, teddy bears again) and I put a few pairs of Christmas teddy bear salt and pepper shakers joined by a pair of Christmas tree ones.
Strangely after I set all this up - and it took part of 2 days as I didn’t have a lot of time either day to work - it seemed to me as if I waved my arms and it all appeared and sorted itself out.. Unfortunately when January comes and it all has to be put away, it will seem like much more work.
I suppose I should mention to explain some of the items mentioned above, though I planned/plan to write about these matters later and the organizing problems they cause. We have several hobbies. First, we are both craftspeople. We work in variety of media at an assortment of crafts. My first love is hand embroidery and I make dolls and sew also. My husband works in wood, leather, paper and also sews, and makes dolls and I am sure I left out some of his crafts. Secondly, if it is not obvious, I collect teddy bears - stuffed ones, figurines, and ones of assorted materials such as coal, glass, wood... Lastly - and the oddest of the hobbies - we are 1770's (late American colonial period) reenactors. It is a period that we both like and it affects how we decorated the house - more or less.
By this time next week I hope to have the 3 downstairs trees (main, studio and one - new this year - with brass ornaments collected over the years from Colonial Williamsburg) finished. If I am lucky I will also have the teddy bear village that goes at the top of the stairs and the Christmas tree that goes with it done also - but generally I am working on the bear village/tree on Christmas Eve and sometimes also on Christmas Day.
Do you have something special you set up every year and Christmas would not be Christmas without it? Have you found ideas that help speed up the process of decorating and undecorating or a better way to decorate?
Our dining room is decorated, sort of, colonial. This means that the decorations are greens (plastic ones) and some bows. Decorating for the holiday was much simpler then. The decorations were natural - a few bits of greens, not many of them. We put small pieces of greens on the corners of picture frames, on the colonial style brass light fixture - with red bows, and a small wreath. There is a (fake) garland of greens on the front window. In a bowl on the dining room table I have some fake red berries in a bowl - they just look nice. Some candles and a small nativity my husband made decades ago finish the room.
The entryway also has a few small (fake) greens and a small glass Moravian star. I wrap the bottom section of our staircase with a (again, fake)garland of greens with red bows at the ends and in the middle.
The living room on the other hand, there is a bit much. There is a 3 piece teddy bear bell band which plays carols, 2 Christmas stocking holders waiting for stockings, 2 angels holding lights on a table, Lego Christmas figures - Santas, elves, snowman, soldier, a snowman I made years ago from a sock, and a santa my husband made, also decades ago, from paper. To be added to this after the tree is at least set up, will be an assortment of elves, Santas, and angels, ranging in size from about 3 inches tall to about 3 feet tall - the larger ones were gifts - they will stand together by the door to greet us when we walk in. I also will put out a Christmas pillow with embroideries (by me) on each side, a green garland across the back windows with a teddy bear Christmas picture (also embroidered by me) across the 2 back windows, and a Mrs.Rudolph Reindeer doll I made will sit comfortably in a chair. We usually put out 2 stockings each for us - one to use and one I embroidered for each of us. There are also some small stockings with (yes, again) plastic candy canes in them that we put out for show with the names of some of my dolls on them. A beaded tree I made once. Then at some point the trees will be done.
Our studio - behind the kitchen - has a small tree waiting to be decorated. It will get items we have made over the years.
Even the kitchen takes a hit and gets decorated - I change the decorative potholders (as opposed to the ones I use) to Christmas ones (yes, teddy bears again) and I put a few pairs of Christmas teddy bear salt and pepper shakers joined by a pair of Christmas tree ones.
Strangely after I set all this up - and it took part of 2 days as I didn’t have a lot of time either day to work - it seemed to me as if I waved my arms and it all appeared and sorted itself out.. Unfortunately when January comes and it all has to be put away, it will seem like much more work.
I suppose I should mention to explain some of the items mentioned above, though I planned/plan to write about these matters later and the organizing problems they cause. We have several hobbies. First, we are both craftspeople. We work in variety of media at an assortment of crafts. My first love is hand embroidery and I make dolls and sew also. My husband works in wood, leather, paper and also sews, and makes dolls and I am sure I left out some of his crafts. Secondly, if it is not obvious, I collect teddy bears - stuffed ones, figurines, and ones of assorted materials such as coal, glass, wood... Lastly - and the oddest of the hobbies - we are 1770's (late American colonial period) reenactors. It is a period that we both like and it affects how we decorated the house - more or less.
By this time next week I hope to have the 3 downstairs trees (main, studio and one - new this year - with brass ornaments collected over the years from Colonial Williamsburg) finished. If I am lucky I will also have the teddy bear village that goes at the top of the stairs and the Christmas tree that goes with it done also - but generally I am working on the bear village/tree on Christmas Eve and sometimes also on Christmas Day.
Do you have something special you set up every year and Christmas would not be Christmas without it? Have you found ideas that help speed up the process of decorating and undecorating or a better way to decorate?
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