CHRISTEPHI

Today I need to iron a shirt.  But the ironing board was littered with various and sundry items from previous projects. Instead of simply cleaning it off and ironing the shirt.  I embarked on an entire rearrangement/reorganization project!  It took me all day!  But I got the shirt ironed eventually.

He actually did very well getting the paint on the paper.  There was also quite a bit on himself, but very little on the floor and none on the walls!  And it kept him quiet for a good 30 minutes!

We have two bedrooms in our home. Hubby and I have the larger master bedroom and it encompasses not only our sleeping area, but also our hobby stations. Hubby plays the saxophone and has various music equipment for making arrangements and recordings and the like. I, as you know, sew and knit and do a variety of other crafts.  From the time we moved here over two years ago, we were short on storage space. But storage devices require money and, frankly, we didn't have the money to spend on shelves. The room got worse and worse.  As I did projects I had to quickly whisk things up off the floor out of the kids reach.  Things piled higher and higher on what was supposed to be my crafting table and with nowhere else to put it, it all just sat there.  It was embarassing.  It was depressing.  It was a block to our creativity. I finally decided something had  to be done about it. Hubby said I could buy some needed org...

Sometimes the house is such a mess it's hard to know where to start.  Sometimes I want to bury my head in a pillow and hope the mess goes away on its own.  Sometimes I do...but it never does.  I've figured out a few mind games to play with myself that have been quite effective. First, don't let Tuesday off the hook.  Tuesday likes you to think it's an unimportant beginning-of-the-week kind of day.  There's a whisper in your ear, "It's just Tuesday, you have plenty of time before Friday."  But somehow, it jumps from Tuesday to Thursday in the blink of an eye and that means Friday is the next day!  I have learned that Tuesday is pivotal.  If I slack off on Tuesday, I'll regret it on Thursday and Friday.  If I banish much of my To Do list on Tuesday, the rest of my week flows much more smoothly! Second, set the timer.  Maybe I just work well under pressure, but it seems if I ask myself, "How much can you do in an hour?" and th...

Don't you love before-and-after shots?  I do.  Doesn't seem to matter much what the subject is...home decor, personal make-overs, building demolition, whatever.  I like seeing the  transformation.  So today I took before and after shots as I was cleaning the kids' room. When I was in the hospital getting my gallbladder out , my in-laws stayed here with the kids.  The house was spotless when I came home.  You know how some things are a blessing in disguise?  Well, (sadly) this turned out to be a curse in disguise.  Everything was put away out of sight, but nothing was where it belongs.  (Which is very sad because my in-laws lived with us for 9 months and it's not like I keep stuff in different places from when they lived here.)  I got the kitchen in order pretty quickly out of necessity.  Where on earth did she stash that colander?   Aw man! I can't put the pitcher away until I put the pan where it ...

Freezing just about describes life around here lately.  Not only does it feel like this bitter cold weather will never end (I admit I was spoiled by living in Southern California for 8 years..."winter" is about a week long), but today a truck arrived from Nebraska Furniture Mart to deliver this: The romantic-looking photo is courtesy of my mad Paint Shop Pro skills.  The frozen veggie distribution is courtesy of Miss M.  The freezer itself is courtesy of Uncle Sam.  It pays to have a baby right at the end of the year!  I'm very excited to have the extra freezer space.  Now I can cook large and put away the extras for those days I just don't feel much like cooking.  I may have to invest in some good freezerware though.

I took the plunge and made simple tie-back curtains.  They don't quite meet my ideal, but they're not bad and it definitely adds to the room's cheerfulness! There was only so much of the print (a Jo-Ann exclusive that I bought off of Etsy), and though I'd have liked to make them quite a bit longer, I did the best I could with what I had.  I still need to make some pull-backs.  Right now I'm using a couple strands of super-neon orange yarn!  Hubby's first comment was, "Do you have any more of that green so you can make a valance to cover up the top?"  Geez...way to boost a body's confidence!  (The answer, by the way, is no. I used every inch I could squeeze out of both fabrics).  Maybe some day I'll get a decorative curtain rod and hang them straight (not tied back) on the sides of the window.  But this'll do quite nicely for now.

I dislike curtains.  I can never seem to find any that I like.  Mostly, I think all curtain styles look dumb.  However, the one place I can tolerate them is in kids' rooms.  Still, I'm really stuck with what I want to do curtain-wise in my kids' room.  I have two fabric choices, but it's the style that's really throwing me for a loop.  I'm leaning toward simple, traditional tie-back. It was suggested to my by someone on Craftster to use an overextended curtain rod to give the appearance that the window is bigger than it actually is.  I think I like that idea a lot.  Still, I can't decide between a basic "invisible" curtain rod, or one with decorative ends and tabbed curtains.  If I could just make up my mind I'd whip 'em up and be done with it! I've got a new game in the works...  The paint is drying, but I should get it finished tomorrow and then I can tell you all about it!

Yesterday I showed you some pictures of my kids' bedroom.  Today I have a sneak preview of some changes that are taking place in that room.  (Please excuse the horrible lighting...  The overhead light went out and I didn't have time to hunt up a new light bulb since hubby wanted use of the camera!) The addition of COLOR to the room! The addition of LIGHT to the room! I found the lamp at Target , eyed it several times, and finally shelled out the moolah for it.  Neither my photo nor the product photo on Target's website do it justice. I need to get cracking on the wall hangings I designed for their room too.

I am not much good at home decorating.  Right now, my kids' room is quite dull.  It's neat and clean, but basically devoid of decor.  (Obviously these pictures were taken a while back when it was still good and green outside.) But I think I've finally got it fixed in my head what I'd like to do in there.  There will be some colorful changes in the next few days.  I'm excited to finally execute some ideas that have been brewing for a while.

Tunisian Crafts has some gorgeous handmade items for sale on eBay.  I have my eye on a couple of these Moroccan footstools to keep in my living room for extra seating and for putting my feet up while nursing E-boy.  They'd fit perfectly on either side of our wooden bench when not in use. I'd order a couple, but unfortunately today's mail brought two hefty medical bills (to the tune of $4,000!) and no white Ottobre envelope .  So I won't be making any purchases until I speak to our insurance company on Monday.  I didn't pay a penny when I had Miss M, not for the prenatal care, not for the hospitalization, nothing.  I don't know why I should be saddled with such high bills this time around.  Hopefully there's just been some mistake...keeping my fingers crossed!