The Perfect Project Organizer

It makes such a difference when you have just the right storage situation for your needs. My craft room is a room that houses many ongoing projects. I couldn't quite figure out how to keep it need and tidy, but still have the projects readily accessible. I knew that if I put them away, out of sight, that they would get forgotten and perhaps end up on the back burner forever. I have one wall of my craft room that my bookshelf fit on, and I just kept cramming more and more projects onto it. I didn't like the messiness of it, though.

I knew Ikea would have a solution. They always seem to have so many organizing and storage options. I wandered around until I found the perfect shelf. It's made of metal, so it's strong, and the paint doesn't chip off, either. I also spent some time in the basket and box organizers for shelves, and found the perfect match for my shelves. They weren't really meant to go together, but the basket/boxes fit perfectly on the shelves.

Hard to believe that's a photo of the very same spot, housing much of the same stuff.

I added felt to the bottom of the baskets, to ease in gliding and to protect the surface of the shelves. The drawers in the center of the shelving unit house smaller projects. I have shallow baskets in the drawers to keep them all organized and in their places.

I have a tag on the baskets that hold projects, so I know where everything is without having to pull all the baskets out. Can I tell you how happy this shelf makes me? It's crazy that something that simple can matter so much, but somehow it does. It makes me smile, and it also keeps my head a little more clear. Which is a big plus.

House Finch Rescue... Again!

Every single year, the house finches build nests all around our yard. They usually fill up the birdhouses fairly quickly, and then move on to other possibilities... like the lanterns attached to the house. I love the happy songs of the house finches. They are always welcome in our yard. However, the nests that they build in the lanterns can be quite troublesome for their new little families. On more than one occasion, we've had to rescue baby birds that have fallen out. Last year, I cleaned all of the nests out of the lanterns in hopes that the birds would find a safer place to build their nests. But no. They seem to keep coming back and building in the same place. Must be in their blood.

Bob had to rescue one of the birds last week, and it was a successful rescue. The little guy stayed put until the other day. When I walked outside the deck, I noticed the mama finch was all in a tizzy. I wondered if a starling got to her babies, or if a baby had fallen out of their nest again. As you can see in the photo below, there is a hole for the mama and daddy finch to come in and out to feed their babies. This hole is also an all-too-easy way for other birds to come in, or for the babies to slip right on out.

As I was glancing up at the nest, I heard a little guy chirping down by my feet. As I stepped closer to it, it scuttled along the deck, trying (but failing) to fly. 

Now, you may wonder what happened to my deck and why it looks cobweb-y and dirty. There are a few places that need sweeping off. I'm not too proud to admit that. At any rate, that little collection of cobwebs likely saved that little guy. He got trapped in them, so he couldn't move down the deck. Otherwise, he may have moved right on off of the second story deck he was on. And that wouldn't have been a good thing.

He was scared and I didn't know if he would try to get away again, so I got a box and placed it in his way, and sure enough... he untangled himself from the cobwebs, and scooted right into the box. I tipped it right side up and had the little guy safely where I needed him while I got things ready.

I got up on my ladder, took off the top of the lantern, and put my leather garden gloves on. I didn't want mama smelling human hands on or around her baby.

I tipped the box and nudged the baby back into the lantern, and she moved right in next to her sib. Hard to see in the next photo, but they are down to the right of the light bulb.

Easy peasy. She was back where she was supposed to be, and the lid was back on their home. Now I just needed to see if mama would be accept her back with open arms (or wings).

And thankfully she did. She's been hustling back and forth feeding the babes all day long. They are so ready to leave. Any day now. But til then, all is well with the little finch family.

Nesting All Over Again...

Talk about nesting. Whew. I'm in full-throttle mode. We've been focusing on babies for a while now, and it isn't stopping any time soon, which is a good thing. My nephew and his cute wife and family just adopted sweet little twin babies. Because they live out of state, they needed a place to wait out the red tape and paperwork. Of course I offered them to come and stay here. Who wouldn't want to? So, we've had house guests, in and out, for the past two weeks, and loved every minute of it. Even though the babies are teeny tiny, they filled our house to the brim with something special. And the family got the OK to take the babies out of state yesterday, so they headed off to their home. It was sad to see them leave, but what a happy occasion for them to finally be heading home.

The good news is, we still have a new baby in the near future. My daughter is expecting any time now. Well, theoretically she is due on March 17, so it could be a while, but she's showing signs of having that baby a little earlier than that, so who knows? And I've invited her and her husband (and of course the baby) to come and stay here for a week or so after the baby has been born, so we will have another wee one in the house. We don't know the gender of the baby yet, but we all have our own ideas about that. I'm thinking boy, but I was wrong with our first grand-baby, so I wouldn't take that to the bank. Bob thinks it's a girl. I'll just be happy to not be calling it an "it" anymore.

So, that there is why we're (okay, maybe just I am) nesting around here. I did this before Wyatt was born, and wondered if there really was such a thing as grandparent nesting. I'm here to tell you, there is definitely such a thing, and I've got it bad. Which isn't really bad, since I've got lots of rooms and closets and cupboards to organize.

That brings me to a whole different subject. I have had to swallow my pride and let all of my walls down as we've hosted my nephew's family here. Normally, when you have someone in your home for a night or so, you can hide the fact that you have closets and rooms that are in such an upheaval, people might get harmed by opening the doors. But, when you have people in your home for an extended period of time, they become part of the family, and there isn't much in the house that they don't see. So, darling nephew and family, please forgive my disarray. Forgive it and forget it. Seriously. I have been planning for months to tear into the den and get it all organized ... when Bob was planning on going out of town for training. Stacks of projects had accumulated on the counter tops and shelves. I kept the door closed anytime anyone would come into the house.

Problem is, his trip hadn't happened yet when my nephew's family came. So, they not only saw it, they had to be IN IT, as they had some computer needs. When they asked to use the computer, my initial response was to say, "Oh, we don't have a computer". But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have bought that. Soooo, I directed them to the doors, asked if they were up to date on their tetanus shots, and let them enter completely at their own risk. Oh well. It is what it is, and there wasn't much I could do about it in that moment. At least I can report happily that they didn't receive any harm (that I know of).

I did lose a little sleep over it, I must say, and that became my first project when Bob went out of town.  So, nephew and wife... the room is no longer a danger, and is actually quite usable. Come back.

And just as a side-note, it's fun, but distracting to organize the den. The cupboards and drawers have all sorts of Bob's treasures in them, like his collection of Micro Machines he used to play with the kids with. I get a little distracted with the memories sometimes, and the work takes longer than it maybe should. In fact, I had to stop and take a photo and send it to my kids on Group Me, so we could have a "Memory Night"...

And that brings me to another subject -- something I've learned in the past couple of months -- that relationships and time with family are much more important things than the little details in life. I learned that with Valentine's Day, as that came and went without me being able to do some of the extraneous Valentine's things I had wanted to do for our family. I realized, as we had them all here for dinner just before Valentine's Day, that being together is much more important than "things" I might have made or bought for them. And it is. I love my family, and both Bob and I receive so much joy from being with them. That is truly as good as it gets. And if I have a disastrous den, or craft room, but I have time to sit up into the wee hours and visit and laugh with my family members (sorry to keep you up so late, nephew and wife), that, again, is the best thing that I could have done with my time.

Now, there is a balance, right? I mean, we have to have clean, orderly, functioning homes. Soooooo, I need to take advantage of some of this nesting time, get things organized, and just keep my house that way. Then, I won't have to take big chunks out of my life (and away from family time) to clean and re-organize. Simple as that. And now, off to clean the bathroom...

Radon Testing in our Home

Somehow our neighborhood here in Draper was built in an area where radon gas seems to be an issue. There are several houses on our street that have radon gas mitigators (not sure if that's the official term, but you get the idea...). Sooooo, after worrying and wondering for some time, I finally got a number of a company that can come in and cut through the basement floor, install a flue and a fan, and get rid of the radon gas in homes. I called them, thinking they could just nip the problem in the bud (think Barney Fife: "Nip it in the bud!") Anyway, after talking to them, they said I really should get a test kit and test it before going to the expense of getting their company involved.

I went to Home Depot and picked up two test kits ($10.00 each).

I set them on my work bench and the days went by without me thinking about them too much. Finally, after seeing that on my "to-do" list for longer than I care to mention, I opened up the test kits and placed them in my basement.

To do the test correctly, you would place the two little canisters about a foot apart from each other. Since I had two test kits (four canisters in all), I did the tests in two different parts of my basement, just to be sure.

You take the lids off and let the canisters sit undisturbed for exactly three days. I did just that, and after three days, put them into the little provided postage-paid envelopes, and mailed them off. A week or two later, I received reports on both sets. One set showed an average of 0.8 pCi/L, and the other showed 2.1 pCi/L. Looks like a bunch of gibberish, except for the fact that it says if your levels are below 4.0 pCi/L, you should be okay. Yay! We passed the test! Yay!

I have read that if you live in an area where radon gas is known to be a problem, to test again in a year. I've noticed there is also a long-term radon test where you test for a whole year. They say radon gases spike up and down quite a bit, so that may not be a bad way to go.

For now, I can feel good that the levels are where they should be. And I know how easy the whole process is, so next time I do this, I won't put it off. It's as easy as picking up the test kits, opening the packages, placing the canisters out with their lids off, and waiting three days. Then, you just put the lids back on, fill out the little form, and mail it off. Its a pretty simple way of knowing if there is a deadly gas problem in your home. Small, small price to pay!

The Real Deal: A happily imperfect life

Just in case you have found yourself reading blogs and thinking everyone in blogland is perfect, I've got some imperfection to throw at you today.

We have an organizing emergency around these parts. Just about every closet and drawer in my home need an organizing make-over in a big way. I'm looking for a good, solid whole-home organizing plan, and hope to come up with something that will work for me and my home. For all of our sake. My sweet, sweet husband never utters a word about how disheveled certain areas in our home are. He may be thinking a myriad of things as he opens a closet or drawer, but he is kind enough to just shut the door or drawer and move along. It could possibly have something to do with the fact that if he brings any of it out into the open, that will be "our" next, instantaneous project. No. It's better to keep one's thoughts to oneself in that case.

The odd thing is, I LOVE to organize. If I could have a day with nothing to do, I probably would choose to tear into my closet, or my food storage room, or anything else that needs some work. When I was a youngster, and my parents would go out on a date, I'd re-organize my mom's pantry, or move the furniture around in my room, or put all of my books in alphabetical order... the list goes neurotically on and on. Before I go too much further, my mom's pantry was never in need of reorganizing. She is a very organized gal herself. I just liked to stack and re-stack and put items in order of how a 12-year-old thinks pantry items should go in. Sorry mom. Truly I am sorry. Its a wonder you and Dad ever even wanted to leave the house.

Having said that, I think I put off organizing a room until I have the time to do it "right". I need to carve out a big chunk of time to go through everything and get things put where they belong. I also need to find a time when the piles of things won't be bothersome for a couple of days. So, it does take me a while to get to some of these larger organizing projects. But, I've dubbed 2014 as my year to get organized: "Get organized and clean in 2014" (or something along those lines).

This is my food storage/emergency supply room. (Please don't let there be any emergencies quite yet)

And my poor craft room. There is a circle of life in that room. I get it all spruced up and everything put away. And then a crazy week or month comes along, and I can't spare even a minute to put things away. It takes no time at all to turn it into a state of upheaval. So, another project awaits. Oh, but I need to get to it before the Christmas hurricane hits it.

So there you have it. I could show you many more photos of organizing catastrophes, but that just might make you feel out of sorts all day long.

I'll find a good solution, but in the meantime, I'll just shut a door or two and go along my merry way.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

What do you do when you plan a "all-day" backyard workday and you wake up that day to find that this is what your backyard looks like?

I even had Bob and Robbie all set to come and help. I had such plans for last Saturday...

And to make things worse, this is what the inside of my house looks like...

We had wood delivered almost 3 weeks ago for wood floors in a dining room, and also to replace the damaged wood floor in our den. The thought was, to have the wood acclimate to the dryness and warmth of our home, and then install it a few days later. Well, two weeks after the pile was delivered (and sitting right outside my bedroom door at the perfect height to whack our shins with, I might add), I called the wood floor guys and asked when we might expect them to come. "Hmmmm? Well, I think we could make it there towards the end of the week. We'll install on Thursday and Friday, then refinish it the following Monday and Tuesday." Cutting it close for Easter, I'm thinking, but okay. I'm game. They did come on Thursday afternoon and part of Friday, but had to use today to finish it up. They have now installed it all, and I love it, but now we'll play the waiting game for the sanders and the finishers. Did I mention I have the annual family Easter-egg hunt and barbecue at my house on Saturday? I guess the good news is, the house is in such turmoil, it will be really easy to hide the eggs so that no one will ever find them. Actually, we will be doing it all outside, which is a real bonus, except that it may or may not be like a jungle out there. Hence the need for last Saturday's all day work day. Again, the good news is that it will be easy to hide the eggs, and the bad news is that there is a good chance the eggs might never be found.

There is still snow out there, but I'm on my way out to brave the cold and the snow. I've got to get some work done in the yard, even if just a good start. I'm planning on being outside every day this week, so I'm hoping that means I should be able to get most of it done.

For now, I will choose to ignore the furniture that is literally piled up inside the house, and the layer of sawdust that has settled over everything. I can't do much about that, and it will be better to be outside so I don't have to look at it and get that panicky feeling.

If you have been a reader long enough to have read last summer's posts, you'll know that I have a deathly fear of snakes, which is another reason I like to get out and work in the yard on days like today. I know that with snow on the ground, the snakes aren't coming out, so I'm safe and have no need to have my heart in my throat the whole time... just waiting for a snake to be underneath a pile of leaves I'm scooping up.

So, out I go. I'll be back tomorrow with our Week-by-Week Food Storage item of the week.

Cleaning the Craft Room

Whew! The holidays completely flew past. I love Christmas and everything that goes along with celebrating such a wonderful holiday. But I must admit, it tires me out... and this year for some reason it did more than others. I think its because I was probably less organized and had more projects and things going on. This year, I am going to make a goal to get everything done by December 1st: tree up, house decorated, shopping done, Christmas cards addressed and ready to mail, projects completed, etc, etc. I hope I can do it!

I do love January. I may be in the minority with that, but I really, really LOVE January. I love to have my house back to a more simple decor, I love to get to the dust that's been collecting in and around the Christmas decorations, I love to organize closets and drawers and rooms that desperately need it. Its a great month to "catch up" for me, and I take full advantage. This particular January, we have our first grand baby due, so when that happens, everything else will be at a stand-still, but that's as it should be! 

So, when I took all of my Christmas decorations down, I piled them down in the basement, just to get them out of the way. This is what my basement looked like on Saturday morning. 

I spent a few hours boxing and putting away so that we're all ready for next year. I might add that another project I have slated is to go through the boxes of Christmas stuff that I haven't opened up for the past few years and take it to D.I. I only use about 25% of the Christmas decorations that I have, so its time to get rid of things.

I don't really have an "after" photo of my basement, because that would be boring. The photo you see above would pretty much be just a photo of our carpet, now that the things are packed away.

One of the unfortunate casualties of November and December is my craft room. I start with it all organized, and I end up tossing things in there and shutting the door. This, my friends, is what my craft room looked like this past week. Not a pretty sight, and not something I'm particularly proud of.

I'm just keeping it real. As you can see, there are piles of things on every surface, and not much floor space left, either. After about 3 hours of rolling my sleeves up and getting to work, I now have it looking like this:

Why do I put that off for so long, thinking that it will be days and days of work? I still have some more things to go through and organize, but at least its a usable room. It feels so nice to go in there and to be able to find whatever I need, and then to be able to actually put it away afterwards. Where the little brown table is in the center, we are thinking about putting some sort of a cutting table/island. I think it will start where the chair is on the left, and then go across to where the table is, sort of like a peninsula. It will be great for larger fabric cutting.

And that is what I've been up to this weekend! I need about 20 more Saturdays to get the rest of the house done, but at least its a start!

Christmas Home Tour

Since there are just a few days til Christmas, I figured I had better get the Christmas decorations post up, like I said I would. Crazy to think that in a week, I'll be starting to take things back down and packing them safely away for next year!

This is our family room mantel... 

And just below the mantel on the hearth...

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago on how to make the wreaths I have going up the stairway (a new addition this year that I love!).

Every year we get a new Christmas book or two, and we add them to the collection that line the stairway. When our kids were young, we used to read them throughout the month of December. Now we'll get to do that for the next generation of kids. Our first grand baby is due in less than a month! Yay!

I already posted our Christmas tree in an earlier post, but this is the little area to the side of the tree...

Living room decorations...

Basement mantel...

Our bottle brush tree collection. One of my favorites....

This is a ceramic nativity that my husband painted when he was in grade school. I love it's vintage chippiness, but most of all I love thinking about him painting it as a little guy. Such a treasure to me!

My sweet dad...

Fall leaf decorating

As mentioned in the last post, Bob and I go out collecting fall leaves every year up near our cabin. We use them in the cabin and also at home to decorate for the beginning of fall. For me, it is still a bit early to actually put up Halloween decorations, but I do like to have just a touch of fall in our home in September. 

I love this kind of decorating... putting branches here and there, and calling it good. And maybe lighting the Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin candle from Bath and Body. Yum.

Another great thing about this kind of decorating, is that when I'm done with it, I can throw it away, instead of having to box it up and then finding some place to store it.

I know, I know. I've heard it a million times. Is that bike part of your decor? And yes. Yes, it is. Its an old bicycle built for two with a story behind how Bob acquired it. I love it to pieces, and its just outside of my bedroom door (that you can't see), to the left of the photo. As you can see, I've put just a few fall leaves in the basket hanging from the handle bars.

And then some tucked in a corner of the living room...

In the entry...

In the family room across the mantel...

Another shot of the mantel. Yes, it is a lovely, lovely time of year.

It was nice to be able to do my fall decorating in 15 minutes. I have a lot of other things I am trying to get ready for. This weekend we are having my family reunion at our cabin. It won't be huge (maybe 40 people), but we have been busy getting ready for it.

Bob made these little wooden Christmas keepsake ornaments with the reunion date on them. They turned out great. You can't tell from the photo, but it started out as just a piece of thin wood, and he laser cut the design (deer, pine cones and branches) into it, the circle shape, and the little hole at the top for the tinsel. He made 25 or so, for my mom, the grandchildren and the daughters (me and my sisters) that are at the reunion. Again, that laser cutting machine is pretty awesome. The possibilities are limitless.

I made a photo book of the cousins using Picaboo. It has photos of them through the past 35+ years as they have interacted together. I had so many good photos to choose from, that it was hard to keep it small. It ended up being 52 pages. I think it turned out great, though. We had enough made so that each of the 33 grandchildren will get one, as well as their parents, and my mom. This year the reunion is focusing on those grandchildren -- the cousins -- and the fun they have had together through the years.

We have a few other things planned... some games, activities, etc. It will be on Saturday, though a handful will be with us at the cabin on Friday night. 

Should be a fun weekend!