STORED AWAY (MOSTLY) INSIDE CHRISTMAS DECORATONS FINALLY

 Well, over the last couple of weekends we have taken down all of the inside Christmas decorations (except one small beaded tree which still has to be put into its box) and stored most of what we took down in the basement.  

It was the most disorganized take down of decorations I have ever done!  Things are not in the correct storage boxes – so decorating next year will be a MESS!  But everything other than that tree is in its box.  

After the stuff was boxed I took the decoration boxes to the basement – stored in the finished half of same in a corner where the boxes fit EXACTLY in their space (so tight, husband could not get them out as they cannot be on any angle when being moved).  I stored my Christmas soft figures (teddy bears, large Mrs. Rudolph Reindeer I made etc.) and Christmas stockings in the box they all go in – also on that side of the basement, but in a different spot.  

The main tree gets carried downstairs section by section as they are heavy – and between same and the stairs I have to rest between the 9 sections.  I stacked them in the box in the order they have go into the box and added the pole, tree skirt and other similar items which fit into the box.  Doing well at this point.  

Then I made a big error which I did not realize until too late.  I had stored the assortment of various sized Santas and elves (varying up to about 3 ½ feet in height – some made by me, some were bought by us and a number of them were Christmas gifts from someone husband worked with) in their individual plastic bags on top of the big tree box where they go and put the basement back together again in front of the box and figures. The box stores under the stairs to upstairs so it is not at all easily accessible when everything else which stores in front of it is back in place.

We have two smaller trees (one goes in the dining room and one in our studio).  They each store in a box.  They also store on top of the Christmas tree box – but are suppose to be UNDER the figures to keep the figures from being squashed or damaged!  So now I have to move at least enough of what is front of the box to be able to reach the figures and remove them from where they are, put the boxes in places, get the figures on top of the boxes, and then put it all back together again.  I cannot do this until I get the laundry done as what is in front of the tree box has to be moved onto the washer and dryer to get them out of the way!!  

And my Teddy Bear Village upstairs remains as Christmas until I have a chance to put away the Christmas items and set it up for ?  Will be a bit late for Valentines Day – which is set up as bears in pairs kissing or holding paws and going to the Asian restaurant and the honey restaurant in the Village.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Always check twice  - and then check again and again – before storing seasonal items away to make sure they are stored in the correct order so they will fit where they need to be without damaging anything and so that what is needed the following year will come out in the correct order.

MISSED LAST WEEK'S POST TO DUE TO EXAMS AND LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS DECORATING

 I hope that all had a good Christmas.  

Sorry I missed posting last week.  Having managed to get the paperwork (per my last post) to the county for our senior real estate exemption the day I posted last, I started on taking the courses I need to take – and pass tests about – 20 hours of classes and 10 hours of tests done online.  I passed all of them and can continue working in 2022.  I took them over the week and had planned to take the biggest of the tests on last Wednesday (12/22) evening but husband had something that had to be done – so I did not get it to it until last Thursday evening.  

I had managed to work at putting out our indoor Christmas decorations over the several evenings before last Thursday – small items which are put out in our kitchen, dining room, front hall and living room.  I skipped many of the decorations such as hanging (fake) greens along our staircase banister and small items due to time limitations.  I also had brought up all three of our Christmas trees (large living room, small dining room and small studio trees) and set them up earlier in last week – also in the evening.  One problem is that since it all kept in the basement and, in particular the big tree sections, much of it is rather heavy, so I have to carry up one of the 9 tree sections (plus lighter tree pole to hang them on) at a time and rest before going back down for the next section.  Then, of course they have to be arranged on the pole, extension cords setup to bring electricity to the tree (and of course the extension which runs up the tree with outlets in 3 different spots -  decided to fall off this year when I set up the pole and I had to wire that back onto the pole).  I did not get to work on the ornaments until the following day – Christmas Eve– and each of the 4 boxes also has to be carried up from the basement with a rest in between – though at least I can hang ornaments while resting.  Again, for the first time since we were married 40+ years ago, not all of the ornaments went on the tree.  Around the equivalent of a box of “lesser” ornaments (plain balls and such) did not make it onto the tree due to time limitations.  

December 26 (Boxing Day to those of you in the UK, Canada, and related countries) I went to work on my Teddy Bear Village.  Yes, I managed to get it set up.  I did some sections differently than in year's past to spread the bears around the 4 sections of the Village a bit more and leave some “breathing” room for the bears in the main section.  Husband guesses that there are 300 bears – I am pretty sure there are a lot less – maybe I will count them when I put them away.  Yes, that is the problem with having fun decorating – in a couple of weeks I will have to take down the tree and decorations downstairs and store them back in the basement (with many trips down and breaks between them again) and store away the decorations from downstairs.  The Teddy Village will stay set up until into early February and then it's residents also have to be stored away to make way for the Valentine Bears (much, much less of them).  

So, all of this diverted my mind from visiting all of you.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes work comes first – such as my classes and exams.   Sometimes what one enjoys has to take precedence over work which can be postponed.  One has to know the difference between the two.  

As I sit here is it December 29 – I wish a good New Year to all.  Keep in mind that small changes and specific ideas are more likely to continue to be done throughout the coming year, as opposed to making resolutions which are too big or non-specific to be kept.   

BUYING A NEW VACUUM CLEANER

 We have several vacuum cleaners.  

There is an upright one upstairs  - actually standing up in the corner of the bedroom as there is no place to keep it.

There is a small wet/dry vacuum in the office upstairs.  (Why there?  Well a vacuum in the office is convenient as lots of shredded paper ends up on the carpet and it is easy to use for same (on the dry setting of course).  

There is another upright vacuum in the front hall closet on the main floor.  It is held standing up against the wall with velcro attached to the wall.  There is also a hand held vacuum hanging just inside the door to basement from our kitchen.  

The basement has a normal sized wet dry vacuum.

The garage/wood workshop has a BIG wet dry vacuum as it goes into clear pipes around the inside of the garage walls and the various standing power tools connect into it so that when the tool is in use one opens a small door where a short pipe from the tool meets the big one around the wall of the basement – this allows most of the saw dust to be sucked into the pipes and then into the vacuum.  

I have never liked vacuum cleaners since I was little – they make too much noise for me.  I use sweeping tools instead.  I have been very bad however, for a number of years and even more so the past year past during the pandemic, at actually using anything to clean the floors or to dust.  Does using the toe of a fuzzy slipper count as cleaning?

Husband had been getting more upset about how the house looks – he claimed that one could get lost in the dust on the floor.  He decided the problem was needed a better vacuum (at least he did not decide that what “we” needed was a better wife).  He has been reading and studying about the newer vacuums and what to buy.  

So last Friday we drove out to the Walmart over the county line as they had the stick vacuum he has seen on TV and he decided was what we needed.  The Walmart near us carries this vacuum also, but all the cartons looked open (should have been a clue).  

We took it home and he immediately set it up.  First problem – the commercials say it stands alone – it only does so if one removes the motor section and hangs it from a hook lower down on the stick – not a great thing to have to take it apart and put it back every time it is used.  He cleaned our kitchen and part of our studio with it.  Kitchen has vinyl floor, studio has carpet.  He tried to clean the air conditioner in the studio with it – using it without the floor cleaning piece – not as successful.  Despite their advertising it does NOT clean up to the wall and there was about ¾ to 1 inch of a line of dirt around the walls which it did not/could not pick up.  We had to dump out the dirt cup twice while using it (okay, there was at least 6 months of dirt on the floor).  Hair is not suppose to get caught around the roller – it does get caught. We had to cut the hair off the roller of the vacuum with a pair of scissors before repacking it.  Then again also, we both have long hair.  

He then took it upstairs to the bedroom and cleaned the wood floor up there with it.  Similar problems and even more hair caught under it and again the dirt cup had to be dumped twice.  We decided it was not for us.  We packed it and did so.  

He then started looking again.  The same company makes other similar vacuums – he decided we needed the next size up.  It actually stands on its own when assembled (no need to take the motor off), holds more in the dirt cup and so on.  He read the instructions online this time to avoid any surprises.

We bought the larger one.  Today we set it up and tried it.  Similar problems to the first problem and much heavier.  So we repacked it to return it.  

We never did get to the living room, or dining room floors – both wood, or the spare bedroom upstairs- carpet and only one of our studio was vacuumed as the other side is covered in “stuff” mostly as a result of canned goods and such being on my work table there  -  so other items were moved to the floor.

While he is the one looking for a new vacuum I realize it all my fault.  If I had kept up with the sweeping (I use a modern version of a broom that comes with replaceable pads which I will not name, although it works very well as opposed to these vacuums) he would not have decided that we need to get a new vacuum and we would not have gone through all of this.  I do use one of the hand held vacuums to pick up the debris left after sweeping.

Now, to be fair, I have had my eyes on a device which holds a bottle of cleaning liquid and vacuums it up  after shooting it onto the floor to clean it, which is used to wash floors. Problem has been that we don't like scents – especially floral scents – which its cleaning liquids have.  They now have a lemon scent which we can both probably deal with and we will buy same.  It is mostly for my kitchen floor which gets dirty of course, more than getting dusty.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Always take advertisements “with a grain of salt”.  I know this. Husband knows this and will make fun of people who fall for advertisements.  I knew these vacuums would not be as advertised, but hoped that they would be better than they were – he actually thought that they would be as advertised for some strange reason.  

What do you use to clean your floors?   Well at least the floors are mostly clean right now.

WHY ARE WE ROTATING THE DVD PLAYERS FROM ONE ROOM TO ANOTHER?

 Well at least I am back on schedule and on time this week.

Today we did some electronics organizing.  Huh?  Well, my husband told me that we needed to switch DVD players around the house.  I have learned that when he comes up with an idea such as this, it is much easier to just to go along with him and not ask why we are doing this.  

First we took out the DVD player which we use in the kitchen (it is actually located in our adjacent  craft studio – there is a large squared off arch between the two rooms so while obviously being two separate rooms they more or less continue into each other.   Our kitchen table is in the front of the arch (blocks part of the arch and part is still walk through – only place to put the table in the kitchen and it is a small table) and our kitchen TV is actually in the studio on a dresser in same, so we can watch TV at the table.  The DVD player is on top of a chest of drawers in the studio which is next to the dresser, but away from the arch.

We took the kitchen DVD player upstairs to our bedroom.  We then took out the DVD player in the bedroom (I put it on my chair in our office, across the hall from the bedroom) and we setup the DVD player from the kitchen in the bedroom – so far relatively easy.  Turned on the DVD player and it came on.  

We then went to our office and started to take apart the DVD player in same.  This was a bit harder than other two.  The DVD player sits on top of 6 foot tall bookcase.  The TV in the office sits on the highest shelf within the bookcase (which shelf is about 2 and feet tall in space above it).  There is a small hole cut in the back of the bookcase behind the TV for the wires to drop down behind the bookcase and come into the shelf.  AND to be seen while sitting at our desks the TV has to be pointed down – so there are small rectangle blocks under the back of the TV's base.  While I held the TV so it did not fall off the shelf – husband unplugged the wire from the back of the TV, climbed on a step stool, and pulled the wires out of the back of the bookcase and removed the DVD player from the top of the bookcase.  I set that DVD aside on my desk and brought over the DVD player from the bedroom for which the process was reversed – it was put on the top of the bookcase, wires had to be found hanging behind the bookcase and brought into the top shelf through the small hole (hardest part of course finding the loose hanging wire) and then the wire from player to TV plugged into the TV and the electric cord into an electric extension already there.  Turned on the DVD player and it came on.  

Back to the kitchen.  We now setup the DVD player from the office in the studio/kitchen and made sure it came on.

Now I finally asked the big question - “Why the heck did we do this?”  Turns out that one of the players does not take a USB drive and one of the other players also runs Blu Ray discs.   So the object of this project was two fold – we now have players  which take USB drives in 2 places he wants them and we have the player which runs Blu Ray in the kitchen.   

One problem was the need to do major dusting as we did this – on the drives themselves, the TVs and the shelves and other spaces where all of these items sit.  Husband did not wait for me to get a dusting cloth and instead started using paper towels – which, of course, are not that great for dusting.  

Part of the this plan, I am guessing, is that he got a hard drive for Christmas which records off the TV/cable and he has been recording some TV series which are on too late for him to watch and he will be able to plug the recorder into the 2 boxes which take USB and they are now both located where he would want to watch those shows and the Blu Ray is probably in the kitchen to be able watch same when we have our Covid substitute Saturday night movie dates while eating take out Chinese food – aka our Covid substitute Saturday night dinner out.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes something makes sense to one person and does not make sense to others.  

This is true for husband's need to rearrange all of the DVD players and my need to use the dining room and good china, silverplate tableware, and good glasses for holiday dinners even thought it is just two of us.  

If your significant other feels a need to do something that is is not a major problem/expense and what he/she wants to do makes no sense to you – humor them and help them with what they want to do.  And if you feel the need to do something like this – they should humor and help you also.  One never knows when a small change which seems to make no sense is actually a great idea.

WORKED ON CLEARING UP OUR STUDIO SOME MORE

 Sorry for the delay in posting.  We managed to get appointments for our first Covid vaccinations during this past week and it diverted my time and attention.  (We are both in our late 60s.)

Last post I was talking about working on clearing out our studio.  I worked on the area behind my work table.  (Husband and I each have 5 foot long table and the tables touch along the length – this gives us a 5 foot by 5 foot table if we use both together for larger projects.)  Items which were normally on top of my table as well as items that had recently been put on my table – craft projects from when I was young that I had brought from my family home when it was being – all had to be moved off of the table when I needed it for the food storage.  The items were not sorted through and ended up on the floor in front of the table as well as on my chair and on top of the items on the small side table to my main table.  (They make an L together.)  It has not been easy to get to the far end of the table where items such as spare plastic bags – sandwich size, gallon size, and similar as well as some of the less other less often needed items are stacked.  I should also explain that under my work table is the storage for a lot of the inventory we made and take to craft shows when we do same so that space is not available for storage for anything new.  

I started going through the mess behind my table.  I found items to be donated – forgot about them in the year since.  I found items I made while still living at home and put them in the bags that were holding other similar items.  I have to figure out what to do them.  One piece, which I had embroidered as a gift for my parents' fortieth anniversary and has come back to me, is framed and I had husband hang on the wall behind my chair in the studio – it had been on the floor in the dining room and I had been afraid that one of us would trip and put a foot through it.  I have to decide what to do the other pieces.  Most of the others are not framed and were never finished into anything.  These days I often finish pieces by basically making a small quilt of the piece so it can be stored easily in a drawer, as well as easily taken to an embroidery demonstration when I do same.  

I can now walk all the way to my small side table – the next mess to deal with as things have been tossed in it's general direction (and not always making the distance) since the area was blocked.  I had taken a plastic holder which has open storage of thread spools on it to get a spool and when I put it back – I missed the spot and the spools fell on the table and the floor.  I can now get my chair out and go around and clear up the floor around it and deal with what is on the small table.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When it is YOUR turn – do go and get vaccinated for Covid.  We all need to do our part to reopen the world.  I know several people who have died from it – including a young woman – a teacher – in her twenties.  

My sisters and I have not been able to see our 91 (92 end of the month) year old mother since last March.  Last year my sister went to see mom for her birthday and found the doors to her assisted living residence locked.  There was a cart outside with a note that no one was allowed in and if one had anything for a resident to leave it on the cart with their name and apartment number and it would be given to them.  So mom's cake and gift and left.  My sisters have seen mom – from the outside of a fence with mom seated on a chair inside the fence a distance away.  I have not seen mom as we are not going out except for necessities in over a year.  

We need to get vaccinated so that families can be together again – mom's time left with us is limited and we do want to see her  - in person – again.  We also need to get vaccinated so young people just starting out in life have a life ahead of them and so that children do not think how we must live for now is normal.  

DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS - MISSING HOOKS?

 This past week, I have been dealing with the inside the house Christmas decorations.  Just to refresh your memories – last year time got away from me and 3 days before Christmas I told my husband that we were not going to have our decorations up – particularly not our Christmas trees.  He was actually glad to hear me say this as he had realized it the week before and was afraid to mention it – if he had I would have been bound and determined to get it all set up.  I ended up taking out the small tabletop tree we set normally setup in our studio and decorate with some of the ornaments we have made over the decades, and setting it up on husband's weaving work table which is in our dining room.  I store our ornaments in 4 boxes starting with the nicest ones and ending with the fill in ones.  I pulled about 25 ornaments out of the nicest ones (and had the most sentimental value) and used them on the tree.   Nothing was cleared out of the room from his weaving – basically the loom room never became the living room and the little tree sat in the midst of the weaving.  In the days after Christmas I did take out some of my small stuffed Christmas/Chanukah animals and put them on the sofa and my Christmas teddy bear village was setup after Christmas (I don't think it has ever gone up before Christmas Eve) but that was it.  My husband reassured that “next year” we would get everything setup again.

Well it is next year.  Since we are stuck in the house due to the corona virus we really want to decorate and take our minds off of it and other miseries of this year.  I put out a good deal of the small decorations and then started on the trees over the weekend.   It was all going well.  I have to set up all 3 trees at the same time as the ornaments we have made are shared between the two and ornaments we have received from our membership in Colonial Williamsburg are split between the main tree and one in our dining room.  Both the studio tree and the dining room tree are due to having too many of the same type of ornaments on the main tree – and this being a way to have all of the ornaments out while not overwhelming the tree with them.  (My teddy bear village was started in much same the way – I set up a small tree with some of the teddy bear ornaments from the main tree and the village grew from that.  

I was putting ornaments on the main tree – running into the studio to put some there – and doing well.  My husband had been helping me, but had to go to work on the computer.  I suddenly realized that I was almost out of hooks.  I should have some in the first box and some in one of the later boxes – and I had not found the second bag of them.  As I was about to start the fill in layers – glass balls in various colors that I stick behind the main ornaments wherever there is an empty spot and then some small ornaments and icicles I put over the ornament also to fill in – and I had no more hooks – I also had never found any of the longer hooks and had 3 nice ornaments sitting there waiting for the longer hooks.   I have now being looking for two days for the missing ornament hooks.  Today I went through the boxes of ornaments for the teddy village looking for the hooks for same – figuring that perhaps somehow I stored the hooks together last year since the main tree had not been set up.  NONE there either!  

Not being able to finish the main tree makes me sad enough, but not being able to decorate the teddy village tree – well, is heart breaking.  In addition to not going out shopping this year due to the pandemic, I use soft hooks that are not sold around here – I buy them when we go to Pennsylvania on trips, so it is not a case of run out and buy some more.  I guess I will end up using paper clips to hang ornaments – but the reason I like the soft ones I they can be made shorted and longer as needed as they bend easier and then can go back to how they were.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I again wish all a happy holiday of the season – whether yours is Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza or my teddy bears holiday of the winter solstice.
Let us all work hard to stay well so that, hopefully long before, this time next year life will be back to normal and we can worry about the normal petty problems of the holidays instead of trying to make sure we survive Covid-19.  Let is be in our rear window long before then.

COVID 19 #26 - PLAN NOW FOR THANKSGIVING APART FOR THIS YEAR

 Well, Thanksgiving is coming (in the U.S.A.) in 2 weeks.   Yes, family is important, but family staying well and alive is more important.  Please don't have (or go to) a big family gathering this year.  Have a dinner with those in your household.  

How about a long distance (or short distance if family lives nearby) extended family celebration on Zoom– perhaps even set up a monitor (yes, this would be exception to the “no TV, no computers,no phones at Thanksgiving dinner rule)  where everyone having dinner at your house can see the screen and have your extended family members do the same.  Make an agreement for what time to have dinner which works for everyone – then all can share dinner across the Internet and still be safe.  

Have Aunt Mary send a copy of her secret recipe for her pumpkin pie (will you find out that she uses the one on the can of canned pumpkin?).  Have Cousin Susie her recipe for the stuffing and so on.  Everyone can make the dishes for their family (or not as they choose – perhaps Uncle Dave adds a bit too much “fun” in his rum cake?).  If everyone has the same foods it will seem like everyone is eating together.  Or, just let everyone make the dinner they want – perhaps next year your sister-in-law's vegetable soup (a dish I always make for Thanksgiving) will be the new family favorite that no one has had before, but when she made it for the dinner she and your brother had with their children – it looked soooo good and her children asked for more – yes, more vegetables  - and then you will all asking her for the recipe.  

The holiday is something which can be celebrated across the miles -  or across the street – so that all stay safe and well.  I am sure that you all would prefer for grandpa Jack to be with you at future Thanksgiving dinners than this be his last one due to his catching Covid-19 from someone at the dinner.  

My husband and I used to have both families at our home for Thanksgiving dinner – it was “our” holiday.  10 years ago we had bed bugs – we have not have family join us for the holiday since.  I still cook the same foods for the two of us – just a bit less than I made for the families.  I set up the dining room with the “good” china and silverware.  I use smaller serving bowls than before, but we have a nice holiday.  We do this annually now – and I only suggesting your family and friends have this one Thanksgiving apart – so that hopefully you will all be alive and well for next Thanksgiving to be together again.  

I am writing this column now – 2 weeks before the holiday so that you have time to plan with your extended family to have your holiday apart, while still joining together in some way over the distance so all will survive the corona virus and are here to be there for next year.  

Me, I have to figure out what to do with the all the extra canned goods, bottle, jars, and packages which are currently residing on my dining room table – taking up the entire table plus there are 3 huge plastic boxes of foods,which might attract vermin if it was just out, stacked next to the table.   I figure I have to clear up my studio worktable and move the food from the dining room table onto it.  (This will also allow me to decorate the dining room for Christmas afterward which I never had a chance to do last year.)  Husband has said to have the dinner in the kitchen,but I know from the past we need the kitchen table for related things – such as carving the turkey.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

For the Jewish holiday of Passover one of the prayers is “Next year, may we all be in Jerusalem” - for Thanksgiving let us all stay apart and safe and say “Next next Thanksgiving may we all be at Aunt Anne's” (or wherever you normally celebrate Thanksgiving) and survive this pandemic to do so.  

A little planning is all that is needed.

Let us also remember on this Veteran's Day all of those brave people who have fought to protect their country in the various wars which threatened our country as well as, including those in other countries who share the memory of Armistice Day when World War I (the Great War) had it truce.  If not for them we would not be living in the world we have now (meaning of course the good things of our world.)  Tell a veteran (or two) that you appreciate their service.

COVID 19 # 7 - USE YOUR TIME TO DO PROJECTS YOU HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO DO - THE TRUNK UNDER THE BEAR VILLAGE

Wow – another week already!

I actually got a project done that has been sitting awhile this past week – and ended up clearing up more things than I planned.

I have mentioned (I am sure) that I have a little village which is like a fancy Christmas village setup – but is cheap, has bears instead of people, and we now change it to seasonal “scenes”.  It sits on a board on a wicker trunk – so there is no access to trunk when the board and village is on it.  This is in front a window in a nook at the top of our stairs by the bedrooms and our office (which is in what should be a be a bedroom).  When it was only a Christmas village there were some Christmas decoration items stored in it – I would take them out before the village was set up and put them back after it was taken down and.  Since this can no longer be done as there is always a village set up there, that space in the trunk is empty and has been calling me.  I have items in our third bedroom – aka the teddys' room (you did not think these bears were the only ones I have, the stuffed and non small figure ones took over the smallest bedroom some decades ago – and I have been planned to store some of the teddy bear items (I have much more than “bears” themselves) in the trunk. 

Problem has been that we are always in a rush and I don't have a chance between setups – and when it is setup – well, buildings, bears, Christmas tree,  heavy board have to all be removed and placed someplace safe – so I don't do it.  To help me get around to dealing with storing the items while I am stuck home – when I stored the Christmas/winter village items away I left a bare number of bears out in the village.  Basically the “storyline” has been that the bears are self-isolating and only certain bears are out – police, fire, those who sell food/have a restaurant, are shopping, exercising (bear on roller skates), and an accountant bear with clients sitting away from him are out.  They were all spaced 6 inches apart, the size equivalent of 6 feet I figured.  Husband was not happy with this as he is depressed about everything to begin with. 

So earlier this week I moved the bears, buildings to safe places, and the tree out of the way and slid the board off the back.  I started with some old tee shirts of great sentimental value that were out in the teddys room – I put them in a clear kitchen sized garbage bag and knotted it closed (after squeezing out the air and put it in the box.  I then found a small carton of bear and some other stuff.  I am guessing it has been sitting since we had the house treated for bedbugs in 2011.  Some items of husband's boyhood were also in the carton and I stored much of it in the trunk.  Some of it were small bear items which were good to use in the village including some bears and I set all of that aside on my office desk to keep available.  I threw out some unrelated things also. 

When I was finished with the carton there was a still a lot of room in the trunk.  We have a stack of round plastic storage modules (1970s) and also a stereo cabinet which we had bought for and used for storing various items on its shelves.  I first went through the stereo cabinet as it was in front of the plastic module stack.  Some of what was in it was put there also when we had the house treated for bedbugs and I put those items back where they belonged.  Others I wanted available and left in the cabinet.  Other items were related to old computer games of husbands – so I put them back and mentioned them to him – he has since looked them up and when the Covid-19 problem is over and we can go to the post office again without being woried about being outside, he will put them up for sale online.  I

I then pulled the stereo cabinet forward (it is on wheels) and started on the stack behind it.  I tossed some items, found some more of husband's computer games – which I added to the others in the stereo cabinet and found – of course – more bear items.  Again  I either tossed them, put them aside to use in the village or stored them in the trunk.  With the stack of plastic module empty, I removed them and pushed the stereo cabinet into where they had been – wow – it could actually be used as a bedroom now if we needed it – there is room to walk all the way to almost head of the bed.  (Still a spare TV in there, spare as is there is a TV to watch in the room plus the one on the floor - have to find out if it works or not and figure out what to do with it.)

When I was finished there was still room in the trunk, but I had gone through what was there to go thru and dealt with it.  I closed the top of the trunk and attempted to slide the board on top. Problem – it is a small space.  While there is enough room for the board at the top of the trunk, at the bottom of the wall due to the molding along the walls, there is not enough room for the board to sit across the space – and the board had slid down on an angle and was wedged into the wall.  I juggled it and managed to get it to shift, but it was too heavy for me to lift and it was then wedged into the other wall!  I finally had admit to defeat and get husband to help me lift it from both sides at the same time and slide it into place on top on the top of the trunk.  Next time I will not be lazy – I will remove the board from the area as I used to do to store it in the basement during the year – so this will not happen again. 

I replaced the buildings, tree and bears – dusted it all first.  I added a few of the newly found bears also.    I then took the plastic modules downstairs.  Husband saw me doing this - “You are not throwing those out are you?”  I asked if he had a use for them – he did not, just did not want them tossed out “in case”.  I explained that I planned to replace a storage piece located behind my work table in our studio with it and said that was fine – he just did not want it thrown out.  One module either had green paint in it or a piece of green plastic or such melted in when we had the bed bug treatment (they heat the house VERY HOT for the treatment) and I told him I will throw that one module out if I cannot clean it. 

So right now, the stack of modules, the empty carton and the problem module are in our dining room waiting for me to now move out the storage piece from behind my work table to put the stack there.  The carton will go out to our porch to use for putting out recycling when again our township is collecting them.  The other piece of the module piece I will see if I can clean. 

The storage piece behind my studio work table came as a small cabinet with/to sit over my computer desk and I did not want it there then – I will see what we can do with it when I move the stuff out of it (ribbons, laces, rolls of velcro and such) or it will end up getting tossed out  when life and garbage collection are more normal.

As to the bears – we have decided that the bears “decided” that since it over 2 weeks, all of the bears have continuously been in our house and none of them are sick – the spring village can be set up and I hope to do so this coming week. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

If you are stuck in your house – use the time to do projects you have not had time to do.  If you have children – perhaps you can get them to “help” you to keep them busy.  Yes, they may be more trouble than help, but if you try to make a game out of it or give a prize for the one does the most, finds the most etc.  it will keep them busy also. 

Please take care of yourself and yours – stay well. 

CHRISTMAS AND OTHER HOLIDAYS - AND GETTING READY

Another week gone already?

Are you ready for Christmas or Chanukah or Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa or whatever holiday)s) you celebrate?

Me, I have not packed away Thanksgiving yet.  Well, the dishes, pots, silverware etc were put away, but my decorations are still out.  I don't put out as many for Thanksgiving as I do for Christmas (maybe 1/20th as much as for Christmas or less), but I have the decorations from when we used to have the families here for Thanksgiving dinner and I still put them out – I need to. 

I have to get them packed away and get the indoor Christmas decorations put out – at least most of them.  I generally don't get to my bear village until Christmas Eve or even Christmas night so they “know” they will be put out late.

We still have a lot of stuff in the house that has to go back into our RV from when we cleared it out in October to take it in for the extended service time.  The larger pieces – the bed assembly and such – are back in it.  I have several fabric shopping bags with stuff from it, including the plastic containers that we use for food (snacks) storage when we travel.  It has been bad weather most days around here the last week or so since I realized I had to get all that out to the RV.  Oh, and the vacuum cleaner – we keep a hand held – plug in vacuum in the RV in case we make a mess and need to clean it up.  (Lots of vents in the RV for air to move in and out so animals can smell food in it – hence the plastic containers and concern requiring a vacuum cleaner.)  It is on my dining room table – not a good place for it to be.

We  (and by we, I meant I) also have to store reenacting stuff in the box benches in the dining room that we store it in.  We had the last event of the year that we needed our stuff for last Saturday – more on that later, if I remember – the only remaining events are the 6 days – this coming weekend and next – that we will be doing the candlelight night event at the local restoration village and we need little for that other than our period clothing. 

Husband has to move his weaving stuff to our studio – won't be able to get to my side of same after he does, but the “loom room” will again be the living room when he does. 

After all that I can start putting up the decorations and the trees. 

We have been busy the last week since I spoke to all of you.  I went to Manhattan to a client on Thursday, which took most of the day especially the travel back and forth.  When I got home husband was waiting to pack our van for the reenactment event that was coming up on (now last) Saturday. 

It was at a historic home that one of our members works at and was a colonial crafts event that we were allowed (encouraged) to sell our work at.  The local community had their tree lighting and other events that day so crowds were expected in the community.  Husband had been weaving scarves to sell.  It was to rain on Friday – and maybe Saturday – so when I arrived home on Thursday husband suggested that we pack the van while it was not raining, though dark.  He was concerned about the tables and racks getting wet on Saturday if it was still raining, so we put everything in very large plastic bags – some items needed two bags – one on each end, overlapping, to cover them.  He had put two tables in the back of the van before I came home.  We needed to put most of what we were bringing in the main section of the van (where we have a back seat and the middle seat is out & permanently in our storage shed to make an open space).  It was a cold night and damp in advance of the rain.  He went to slide the side door open and it did not budge.  He tried again – and again.  He then went in the front door and climbed through to the main section and went to open the door – which is pushing instead of pulling it open from outside as we thought that somehow it had frozen closed and needed to be forced open. 

Ha ha!  He get the door open and the overhead rubber gasket that keeps water from going into the van fell down – on me.  It would not fit back into place.  I called our mechanic – if I have not mentioned it is a local shop and 4 blocks from our house – it was almost 5:30 and I thought they closed at same.  His newest mechanic answered (there are 3 including the owner) and he knows us by name from all of our crazy car problems.  I explained and he told me we should bring it over – if we left it sitting it would flood in the coming rain, at the very least they would have it indoors and fix it the next day.  We drove over hoping the side door would not roll open – it did not.  He got the gasket back in place and we were set again.  We went home and loaded the van.  Friday we ran normal errands and picked up deli turkey to make sandwiches for the next day. 

Saturday it was misty more than raining and we were able to get everything inside to set up dry.  We had a nice room in the museum – the exhibition was on 19th century needlework so it went well with his weaving and my embroidery demonstration.  We fit in the room perfectly.  The event had people there most of the day – estimate is 75-100 people and since it was raining on and off and nasty the rest of the day, that was pretty good. 

Still no chance to pack away Thanksgiving decorations and start on Christmas though.  Each day has had new things to waste the day.  I did manage to fit in taking most of the smaller exams I need to take to prepare income taxes next year for pay.  They are online classes from an approved company and I use them every year.  Two more small classes and tests and then the large 3 hour timed test – 6 hours of class time to do.  That last one is always the one that scares me.  I know that someway I will fit them in  before the end of the month as I always do.

I hope to get the stuff out to the RV and pack away the Thanksgiving – at least the downstairs stuff, if not the Teddy Village Thanksgiving stuff tomorrow and hopefully start with the dining room decorations.  I need to push a large linen style looking chest from the living room to the dining room before I start the dining room.  It holds a small sized tree in the dining room and the large tree in the living room goes where the chest is the rest of the year.  (It looks like a linen or hope chest, but instead of the top lifting the front drops down and there are drawers in it for DVDs – husband made it.)

The front hall and the living have decorations also and then the 3 downstairs trees – big one in the living room, small ones in the dining room and studio and beaded one that I made in the living room also – on the coffee table.  I was going to change the bear figurines (separate from the teddy village) that are in a corner shelf unit in the living room – but his big loom is in front of the corner unit. 

I did put up the wire hanging piece we bought a few years ago to hold Christmas/holiday cards.  It is a long piece with little wire spots to clip papers – in this the cards – to and I hang it from our mug rack near the ceiling in the kitchen with red ribbons.  I had figured a better way to hang it last year when I took it down and clipped a note into one of the wire spots to remind me – good idea it worked perfectly and I clipped the note back in for next year.

We did finish our shopping – we bought books for his two nieces – the only gifts we buy.  I send my adult niblings (that is actually a work – I made it up and then found it already existed – it means nieces and nephews combined) checks for gifts.  He has bought some DVDs and such – which he would have bought anyway – and given it to me to wrap for Christmas – I actually stick them in recycled Christmas gift bags – why waste paper.  At some point we have to figure out what we are going to do for Christmas Eve dinner – maybe the Asian buffet we go to will be open?  We are also figuring we will go there for dinner tomorrow as we won't be able to eat out this or next weekend due to the reenactment, so it will break the meals at home up a bit. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Whatever holiday you celebrate – take time to enjoy it.  In the future it will generally be the good times that are remembered – if the problems and misadventures are remembered they will become humorous in retrospect - “Hey remember the year that Susan and Carl got into the box of chocolates when they were little and took a bite out of each and then put them back?”   “Remember the year we forgot to bring Ellen's gift and we all had to get together again the next week for her to get it?”  Trust me, these things are terrible in the moment, but hilarious in the future.

It is the memories of the time together - even if you are just two like us  - that matter in the end.  If the decorations are not finished – they will be by new year's.  If you will be alone try to find someplace where there are other people, I know that there are community holiday dinners even around here  - where no one would think that they exist.

Oh, and as I learned at home growing up – there is always a room to throw all the stuff I you can't figure out what to do with in so the house will look nice for any family or friends who come by.  :-)

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?