Today Update

This is an update on my mission for the day, the following were my goals this AM as I set out with little to no motivation:
1 - Clean my home - surface cleaning/ no decluttering/ no nooks & crannies
2 - Cook (for class nights & lunches for work)
2 - Do 1.5 hours of hot yoga at the studio - to bring me back to my center
3 - Come home - wrap up my cleaning
4 - All followed by an evening of self care - roots touchup/ face mask/ O.O. treatment/ pedicure/ bubble bath with a good book  

I am happily reporting that I've completed all the work, actually I've done more than planned. As an unexpected bonus, I decluttered my dining room which had been filled with boxes of kitchen cupboard "stuff" while some small kitcen sprucing up project has been under way. The kitchen project is not 100% completed yet, but is far along enough that I could reclaim my cupboards. Yeah!

The moisturizing mask is on my face. Roots are touched up. My master bath is sparkling. I attended a hot yoga class and it was one of the best ever. I was in good, even excellent form. Hey, I even made 4 whole wheat Nan pizzas,  and this was not one of my ToDos.

Pretty good for a girl who completely lacked motivation this morning at 9:30, no?

Here is a nice photo of my sparkling bathroom as it awaits me for my bubble bath which I will take just as soon as I'm done with this lovely post.

The Lesson
 In my declutering missions, I'd let the surface cleaning go just a bit for my taste. As I purge and declutter, I must keep up with my surface cleaning, otherwise my home feels mighty unpleasant. An unpleasant home is NOT a frugal pleasure at all, is it?.

This is a very important lesson for this decluttering season/ phase. It cost me a bit of stress as I saw my dining room looking like it did here.  I think it demotivated me from keeping up the all around home caring. Not good.

Here it is now.  Presentable, what a relief. I have big plans to make over this dining room, but for now I am very happily settling for neat and uncluttered.

Creative Space or Guest Haven?

I am participating in Our Suburban Cottage Organizing for LUFFs Party.
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The tiniest bedroom in our home was my studio for creativity projects. Here is what it looked like before I repurposed it as a guest bedroom, and soon to be closet studio.

Not a very desirable space to create was it? In fact I'd not created there in over 18 months. Sorry to say.

Introducing my guest bedroom.

 I absolutely love what I've done here because it prevents me turning it into a catch all for "stuff." All my "creativity stuff" is neatly packed in rolling tuff containers by category. Eventually, this room will serve both as guest bedroom and creative space.

For now I am still working on this room - my goal is to transform the closet into a sewing, craft, art studio, office. Stay tuned.

I used to think that a permanently set up "creative studio" was the only way to be creative. I am sure this is true for many creative people. For me at this time, with the spaces I have available, a permanent studio did not seem to work.  That space became a messy catch-all for putting junk. Eventually my creative studio simply became a space I avoided. It was used for nothing, least of all creativity.

My creative juices flow much better in order and tidiness.  Now I  have created order and tidiness for myself. Soon it will also be my "crative space" as well as my guest bedroom.



What about you? What is your ideal creative space?

Today

Today I plan to spend my day caring for my home. Basic caring, not anything that delves into nooks and crannies. I need to cook a couple of things to eat during the week and take to work for lunches. Last week I ended up eating in the work cafe a couple of times, and this is against the guidelines of my frugality plan.

I will cook and clean most of the day, at 4PM, I will break for a much needed yoga class, then I will return home to wrap things up. I'll pack some lunches, put finishing touches on my cleaning, and make my ToDo list for the week.

The remainder of the evening will be spent in a "self caring" routine, perhaps touch up my roots, a nice face mask and olive oil treatment, a long bubble bath with some relaxing music in my tidy and sparkling bathroom.

Menu for this week:

Monday:  Pork with eggplant server with brown basmati cilantro rice

Tuesday: Leftovers - this is class night

Wednesday:Whole wheat angel hair with garlic shrimp & sauteed spinach

Thursday: Leftovers - this is class night

Friday: Whole Wheat Nan Pizzas with cucumber yogurt salade

Saturday: Chicken enchilada with tomatillo sauce

Sunday: Pork Roast with home made fries and green salade


So I think I'll report back at the end of today on my exact progress. I feel a certain lack of motivation, and the idea of posting a failure may be just what it takes to keep me focused and on track. Lack of motivation is a difficult space to reside in.

I have to remind myself to just get started and focus completely on the task at hand, on what my hands are doing, then the mission will take on a life of its own.
Wish me luck.

To Overwhelm or Not

Sometimes we need to make decisions, to choose, we simply cannot do it all and have it all. I am taking my Intensive Italian & Intensive French classes, so I decided that since I am at the campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays already, why not take a couple of other classes that seem interesting.

I am thinking of taking an Ethics class, and a History class. Both of these are intensive writing classes, and each had about 7-8 books of required reading. I will think about this option during this week end. I definitely love the 2 classes while I am sitting in them, however, the amount of work will be overwhelming at best.

I will need to weigh the pros and cons, and I will have to make s decision about these classes by February 7th. If I decide to take these classes, I will need to become extremely efficient in all that I do, and I will need to simply pare back all that I do.

I am tempted by the challenge. Sometimes I hate when I get this way, all ambitious, and curious, and eager.  Taking on too much is the kiss of death for a happy life. Then I am doing a lot, but doing absolutely nothing with any degree of relative consciousness, or percision.

On the other hand, sometimes being over jammed with "must do" things to do, and deadlines, makes me much more efficient, and completely eliminates procrastination. For me procrastination is sometimes a derivative of a certain degree of boredom, and unfocused "spare time." I create overwhelm, by putting off to tomorrow what I should do today.

There is a fine line between a rich and full life, where I feel engaged,challenged, and thriving, and a life of the crazies lived in constant overwhelm mode.

By the way, how is taking these classes even come close to being "frugal?" Good question. Well, I am lucky that my work offers a very generous education package, they pay 100% for the classes. So at least while I am in class and in the subsequent writing, reading, and thinking frenzie, I'll not be spending money.

Food Waste Friday

Last night I gathered for my food waste, and all I really had were some shriveled apples. How do apples go mushy in a house of people who love apples? I'd relocated the fruit bowl due to a small kitchen renovation, and think folks sort of forgot about these.

So I decided to make the best of the waste, this in no way excuses the wasted apples. But it does give them one final purpose, and brought my family olfactory pleasure, and water in the mouth (as the Brazilians say)  this morning.

Here's what I did:

Mushy apples
2 cups water
3 cinnamon sticks
Crockpot on low

This AM I woke up to the most delicious smelling house...Yummmm!

Tomorrow they will be compost.
By the way - I love that Kristen at Frugal Girl keeps me on my toes when it comes to wasting food.

Ha - Now I just need somebody to whip me into decluttering my night stand drawer, better managing my time, and, well, the list goes on. Little by little, as long as I don't go backward, I'm getting there. It's a process.

Doing Many Things - Persuing a Rich Life

Right now I am doing a lot, some might say, too much. But I thrive on it all. One thing I do NOT do is watch TV.

Let's see, I have my family and home to care for, which at minimum means cooking, grocery shopping, and some basic cleaning. Everbody picks up after themselves, so I am not cleaning up after others, just general cleaning. This is a blessing. Presently no tiny children, but I'd love one soon, and hope God blesses me with a little one.

I also have my career, and it is a career, not a job per se. I've mastered this front though, once I leave the office, it all stays behind, however, while I'm there, I'm 100% turned onto it. I love my work, it is intellectually challenging, creatively engaging, and emotionally rewarding. It is also financially rewarding, which cannot be overlooked.

I practice yoga pretty passionately, it brings so so much to me for the time I dedicate to it. This is very much time I dedicate to me, to my essence. Yoga is one of the sources for my essence, for the building and maintaining of the essential me.

This is the kicker though, I think. I'm also presently signed up for 2 classes, Intensive French, and Intensive Italian. Yes, both at the same time. I already do speak both, so these are higher level classes to perfect grammar and intensive conversational, and translation. Why am I doing this you ask? Good question, because I do get a wee bit stressed when there is a test in both all on the same night. uhrrr....

The short answer is that I love both of these languages, I feel a little bit of a high when I am in class, it just feels good to be there learning. I have a long range goal, just for my own intellectual pursuits, not for my career. My goal is to study comparative literature, centered around the middle ages. So there you have it.

At the very top of my list though, is spending quality, intentional connected time with my beloved, this is "a must." Neither of us is needy, but both of us recognize the importance of prioritizing our "love gathering time." and remaining connected.

So there you have it, those are the "must dos," then there are my many artistic endeavours, my ongoing decluttering goals, my "12th year house sprucing" projects, and time with friends and extended family.

I feel a deep deep gratitude that I am fully awake and alive and able to pursue all that my soul presently feels a need to pursue. I am grateful that my beloved is 100% supportive of all my endeavours. I feel so so grateful for my health, and for my enthusiasm, which to my mind is a key facet of health.

A Beautiful and Appreciated Woman

Are you a woman? Do you feel like a torn and tattered dish rag or a beautiful fluffy wash cloth?

A long, very long time ago I personally used to feel like a dish rag, but I became a soft fluffy monogrammed wash cloth. How? One day I decided to dedicate a day each week to simply taking care of myself, putting my self first. After a good 4 months of my weekly self first ritual, I started to assess my love relationship to see if it was supportive of dish rag territory or fluffy wash cloth land. It was the rag world, my relationship was not supporting my inner beauty, it was not supporting or appreciating my outer beauty. I concluded that it needed to either change, or go. But he was such a good man, a quality man, top quality. How could I ever send away such a good man?


Love, romantic love, any love really, it needs to support us, our essence, our beauty. Romantic love certainly has this task as one of its primary duties, no?


I am a woman, and I need a man who loves and encourages my woman-ness. Sad as the reality was, my relationship, it had to end so that I might thrive inside, as a woman. As I said, he was a good man, a top quality man, and I love him to this day. But my essence was systematically battered and diminished waiting to be appreciated, waiting to be really wanted, I suppose in that little tiny nuanced way that he simply did not have in him.

I am not at all a needy woman, quite independent indeed, but there is a baseline that can only come from our deep connection to our romantic mate. The universe provides us with our mate precisely so that we can reach that higher plane that we'd not reach alone. When romantic love cannot be shifted, improved to make this level a possibility, then eventually romantic love needs to go in exchange for our essence.

Once I was alone and past the pain of the loss, I bloomed, I stood up straighter, I breathed deeper, I started to care more for myself, appreciate myself, take care of my physical, emotional, spiritual needs. I will never again be with a mate that, despite his kind and gentle nature, and through no fault of his own, leaves me neglected and feeling like a dish rag instead of a soft fluffy monogrammed wash cloth.

Today I am with a mate that appreciates me as a baseline. It is very low maintenance love affair, but that depth of appreciation is understood and felt by my essence, by my cells. Today I thrive as the soft and fluffy wash cloth that I am meant to be, and love being.

This is frugality and best use of my spirit, emotions, energy, and my sense of wellbeing.

Frumpiness Patrol

Even if I am on vacation this week, just hanging around town, but still vacating from the office, I  am reminded that I still need to look presentable. Being home is no reason to dress like I am going to be cleaning the garage. Make sure my hair looks fluffy, and for heaven's sake curl my eyelashes.


Eyelash curling takes 35 seconds, and it gives us a day of beautiful eyes. I will not wear any makeup, but if my eyelashes are curled, and my hair is shiny and fluffy, I look fabulous. A nice pair of stylish jeans, comfy properly fitting sweater, and I'm good to go.


Oh, and no sneakers please. Those, contrary to popular belief in this country, are for sports. In Italy you will not catch one single person wearing sneakers around town. I have plenty of attractive shoes/ boots that also feel rather comfy. Save the sneakers for jogging and tennis. Just hanging around the house and doing errands, is no reason to become a frump.

Essentials of Home Keeping

Let's see - what is on my mind today?

  I've been thinking about housekeeping and what my best options are. A very reasonable and simple rule of thumb that makes a gigantic difference is to always make sure all surfaces are clear, by simply assigning each and every item in our world a home. A place where it belongs (not on a visible flat surface.)

Then keep items exactly where they belong with very short and focused daily upkeep. I set a timer for evening tidying up. The timer seems to do the trick of motivating me to just do it, get it done.

Here are some of my daily tasks:

• Daily clean up w' a basket - moving items to their home 
  
• Kitchen swept daily 
  
• Leave sink clean nightly 
  
• Make bed each and every morning  
  
• Place clothes back on hangers/ hamper when undressing  
  
• Launch the morning the night before

Organizing and perfecting of closets, drawers, etc. is then left for when there is time or for a scheduled routine. Keeping all surfaces clear of clutter and clean, is the first level of feeling like I live in a clean tidy home. Perfecting the hidden places is the next level.

I do not need to stress out if my bathroom vanity is not perfectly organized, that can be on hidden places schedule. The open visible surfaces on the other hand cannot be on a schedule, these need picking up daily.

How do you approach home keeping?

Projects - Stuck in the Planning

Did you ever feel stuck in the planning?

I am afraid that is exactly what is happening to me. As has already been established in earlier posts, the epicenter of my clutter is garage and attic. Inside my home it's rather tidy actually, but for some drawers and closets which I want brought into perfection as a starting point.

It is a bit too cold to properly tackle the garage and attic, but perfect to reorganize my master bath closet, it needs it. It's true nobody sees my master bath closet, but I do, and its messiness causes me distress.

My kitchen is undergoing a tiny renovation (sprucing up). It's still not 100% completed, but since one side is done, I need to start pulling it together by refilling the cabinets.

Well for the kitchen -
Here is a short list of the ToDo items that quickly come to mind:

• Get glass fronts & shelves for cabinets
• Dig out formal glassware from hall closet
• Dishwash all stemware
• Set up new glass shelves
• Sort through all boxed items previously in cabinets
• Trash/ donate/ pantry
• Figure out where the new location for microwave 
• Finalize with carpenter all the cabinet drawers

Do you ever get stuck in the planning, especially when one particular item  doesn't seem to have an easy answer?  For my Kitchen project, the microwave is still an orphan. I cannot figure out where its new location should be. I really do not like counter top as a home for microwave.

This one open item seems to be keeping me from completing the things I can complete. I'll post some shots of the landscape later today, maybe someone will have a brilliant idea of where that microwave can go. In the meantime, I may need to suck it up and live with it on the counter for a week or two. 

I definitely need help moving this project along to completion.

Did you ever get stuck in the planning?

When plans go Bad

My chicken dinner at Josh's ended up having to wait till Sunday night. By the time I made it to his place, it was too late to cook, we had plans to meet up with other friends in town, and dinner had to be taken en restaurant. I had a most delicious Pad Thai, actually much better than usual, super tangy, Josh had a Vietnamese pork and veggies. Later at the venue where we went to listen to music, we shared a rich yet fluffy cheese cake. Josh paid for everything so I have not blown my spending plan.


Sunday I ended up making my chicken dinner, and since I forgot a couple of the ingredients, I completely improvised with what was on hand. In place of white wine I used tequila and skipped the onions all together. I swear  it was even better than the original recipe.  Next time I make it I will take photos and post the recipe here. Quick, easy, and tastes like it was complex and involved.


Today my plan had been to make 3 meals for the week, and do some needed de-cluttering and organizing. I woke to friends unexpectedly knocking on my door, so instead of cooking, I opted to hang out and be a hostess. Hopefully I will not succumb to eating in the cafe at work.


Ok - here's my anti-cafe  Plan for this week's lunches:

• tuna sandwiches
• ham sandwiches
• fried egg sandwiches
• oranges/ bananas/ greek yogurt/ kefir

Sandwiches are not my ideal lunch, but they are an acceptable go to when my schedule does not permit making fork and knife dishes.


For our dinners this week I've selected all quick fix meals. I need to use some of my after work time to catch up on the organizing and decluttering. Each meal takes no more than 1/2 hour, some take less than 15 minutes to prepare. I LOVE having an arsenal of easy go to meals for busy or general under the weather weeks, or for when the best laid plans redesign themselves.


Here is my plan:

• Monday - left over soup
• Tuesday - shrimp mozambique w' brown rice and sauteed spinach
• Wednesday - salmon patties w' cucumber and Greek yogurt side
• Thursday - flat bread pizza
• Friday - pork empanadas w' marinated avocado and tomatoes
• Saturday - lobster served with sweet potato fries & bearnaise sauce
• Sunday - Portuguese boiled dinner

Later tonight, if I feel the inclination, I will throw some dried peas into the crock pot along with a couple of bratwurst. Then at least I'll have a soup to go with my dry sandwiches the rest of the week for lunch. I will not succumb to the cafe.

Groceries & Dinner

Just returned from market where I spent $103, I hope these groceries last 2 weeks. I believe they will. I may have to cook form the pantry 2-3 times, but that's just fine. Sometimes I cook from the pantry just because I am in the mood for a simple pasta.

Tonight I am going to my friend Josh's place for dinner, I will bring most of the ingredients, since I will be cooking. I cannot host him at my place because our kitchen is being worked on, and it is all too out of sorts to host guests.

We will have chicken breast sauteed in a sauce of bacon onion and wine, it is finished with a tad of fresh cream. It will be served with whole wheat cappellini smothered with sauteed shredded zucchini, lots of garlic, and a bit of lime juice. This is a delicious meal, quick and super easy.

For dessert I will make a super super easy decadent chocolate budino. Milk, heavy cream, vanilla, bit of espresso, and 60% cacao chocolate chips all melted and cooled in fridge, with a dollop of fresh whipped cream on top. Creamy and decadent to be sure. Small but delectable portions :)

Haiti and Us

Yesterday the Haiti situation had me a bit tied up in knots. The devastaion and death is of course surreal. Then I started to focus on the poverty. The sheer level of poverty. I've lived for a good chunk of time in a third world county in poor conditions, not abject poverty, but meager, a very modest existence living off the land. There was no electricity or hot water, if I wanted a bath I had to heat up a huge cauldron of water.


It occured to me today that those were the most pleasurable bubble baths of my life. Baths taken by kerosene light, my body ached from a day of physical work, that water felt so good. There were times I'd fall asleep in the little tub, and still today I adore the scent of kerosene lamp.


It was such a pleasure to pick ripe fruit from the fruit trees, all that juicy sweetness, and subsequent stickiness. Oh and those little evening sing-alongs that the villagers hosted every night,  remember no electricity, no TV, no TV people gather and talk and sing and tell stories,  laugh and connect, all the time.


I found myself longing for that time. Then I realized that my reaction of yesterday, essentially wanting to sweep all the material "stufff" from my life in one sweep, was really a dishonoring of the source that has provided all this "stuff" that is in my life. Fact is all this "stuff"/ clutter I am longing to rid myself of, it is abundance. It is abundance that I sometimes squander in my quest for simplification. I realized I need to stop and appreciate all that I have, really appreciate and give deep deep thanks for all the blessings in my life. Our health, our love, and yes, our stuff too.


It does not mean that I should not simplify and streamline, I want to, and I will continue to do it. I feel a deep need to do it. I do think I will be more careful what I send to trash, I will attempt to give more away.

I will try to consciously honor all the material things in my life as I pass them on to someone who can make renewed good use of them. I no longer want to "declutter" in an aggressive "get rid of" way. Now I long to gently pass along, and give new life to all the things that are asking to be loved elsewhere by someone new.

Food Wasted

I've decided to participate in Frugal Girl's Food Waste Friday's. Seems to me I do waste food, and this will be an excellent way, if nothing else, to potentially shame me into using up what I have before it goes to compost.

This week it's pretty bad really,  red pepper, and cabbage. Cabbage takes eons to become unusable, so this means it's been in my fridge for more than eons. Perhaps I should give the fridge a good emptying and major scrubbing.
 Oh and it all could have easily been cut  up into a zip lock baggie for the freezer, say, a week ago. Shame indeed.

Haiti

Watching the footage of the natural disaster in Haiti, I quickly became filled with a sense of grief. We need to help however we are able to. My company has organized a fund drive, and they will match our donations, so for me this is the best place to give.

In additon to the devastation, I am struck by the poverty, and by the beauty and warmth in the Hatian people's faces, their eyes speak so much.

I've traveled all over the world, so abject poverty is not foreign to me. But we can so easily get lost living in our life of affluence, because, the poorest of us here in America seem quite affluent by comparison to the Hatians. More and more I am questioning whether I need or even want the level of "lifestyle" we (our family) have.

Little by little I am chipping away at it, hopefully over time, I will hone our lives to become the simplest of perfections. At the moment, juxtaposed against what I've been watching, so much of what we have feels like completely unappreciated waste. I feel like disposing of it all in one sweep, but this is not practical. is it?

We shall see.

Frugal, Healthy & Handy Snacks

Frugality means avoiding convenience store snacks. With the busy lives we seem to lead these days, planning for satisfaction on the run is important because stopping by the corner store regularly to grab a snack can be both a money drain, as well as a bad health habit.

 I am more concerned in this instance with the health implications, thought the few bucks here and there most certainly threaten to add up.

Nightly I add a handfull of almonds, a handfull of pecans (or any other nut,)  and a handfull of plump raisins or 60% cacao chips into a baggie. This healthy snack goes to work with me as my GoTo snack for the day. Satisfies every time.

In our home there are no sodas, with the exception of gingerale which is sometimes used for a tummy ache. We drink filtered tap water into which we sometimes squeeze lemon/ lime ro berry juice. With week end dinners, we serve typically seve wine.

Tap water flavored with a squeeze of citrus is so refreshing. According to my cousin the R.D. it also detoxifies. I just love the taste.

Frugalpleasure

Now this is a frugalpleasure -
A warm bowl of Oat Bran - I adore oat ban - seems everyone and their cousin eats oatmeat which to me tastes much like wet warm unflavorful cardboard. Sorry to my oatmeal lover friends out there.
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Here's how I love it (sometimes I skip everything but the milk)

1/4 cup oat bran
1/2cup milk
a teaspoon of raw honey
1 dash or 4 of cinnamon (sometimes also add raisins...yummm...)
all  in a large bowl - lest it boil over -- zap it in the microwave for 4 minutes -
stir - add a little more milk - zap another 3 minutes (it should be smooth)

 - -  comfort food of the highest frugalpleasure order.

Try it - let me how much you love it or not...

Here's the cost: .50/ serving
and here's the nutritional value:

De-cluttering - my pantry

Frugality means being able to cook from my pantry should I need or want to. My pantry is to me one of the keys to frugality when it comes to feeding my family delicously and nutritiously.

My path to frugality starts with my food budget,  I  am so lucky to have a lovely walk-in pantry. This being the case, I do wonder how I let it get out of hand, but out of hand it got.
Here's the shameful state:

 Well today I gave it a quick once over. This is not my final pantry cleaning, but it definitely has it back to usable, and useful. I can now find what I need when I need it. Finding what I need when I need it in my pantry is a sure money saver, and therefore very frugal. Plus, this pantry now makes me happy, I like to just open the door and stand there gazing into it's shelves.
Here is my pantry now - - ahhhh...

Faces & Costs of Clutter

Up until I undertook this blogging eneavour, my goal had always been to keep my home tidy and clean with less regard for the clutter that hid behind closed doors. Oh once in a while I'd de-clutter the pantry and drawers, but this was generally confined to the kitchen and an occasional closet upstairs.

I have a master bedroom with a walk-in closet, and always kept that walkable. Everything looked excellent to visitors.

This is no longer acceptable, looking good to visitors. Originally my decluttering plan under this simplification mode was to declutter my "secret clutter places," garage and attic.

This priority has little by little shifted. Before I tackle the epicenters of my clutter, I need to take care of every closet, cupboard and drawer inside my home. Surface neatness is no longer sufficient.

Frugality means having access to all our things when we need them.
Money is lost when I have to buy a new measuring tape because I cannot find one of the 3 I already own. Until I have every nook in my home organized and de-clutterd, I will simply borrow from my sister what I need. No worries, she will force me to return it straight away.

Behind closed doors, all of my things have strayed from their homes and are hard to find. A good de-cluttering of closets, drawers, and cupboards during these cold months will serve me much more than attacking the garage and attic just yet.

There is plenty to thin out and organize right here inside my cozy warm home.  I plan a space a day. Pantry done!

Wish me luck.

Snow Removal & Frugality

As I write this, I am sitting pretty on my bed actually with a steaming cafe late that I just brewed.   I hear the plow guys outside clearing my driveway. This little luxury will cost me $35. Now this is not a huge amount of money, but when there is 10" of snow, well then it costs me $75. Plus there can be many snowfalls in NE that require removal.


Last year I spent at least $750 on snow removal. I am considering buying a good snowblower which costs about that same amount. I confess I am scared on many levels. Since my beloved travels a lot, I'd often be stuck handling the machine all by myself, they look so big and I am smallish; maintaining the machine looks daunting; storing the machine, my garage is already the epicenter and as yet untouched capital of my clutter issue. 


Surprisingly all the neighbors, even those who would never cut their own grass, have a blower, they are all men though. One of the men is flimsy, he's had a heart attack. I should be at least as capable as he is. No? oh, I don't know, it's not the expense of the blower, I am just scared to own such a big machine. What if it breaks? How will  I even get it home? I'm sure Home Depot delivers. Actually one of my neighbors is a single woman and she handles her own blower nicely, she is 3X my size. I am 5'6" weighing 119 lbs, she is 5"5" weighing maybe 225lbs. She packs a good bit more power than I.


I admit to having difficulties handling any domestic things going wrong. I keep my home in tip top shape because I am literally frightened of more than one thing being broken at once.  Disrepair and dilapidation gives me panic. A "fixer-upper" would never be in my cards. I would make an excellent "Hotel Resident" don't you think?


Meanwhile I sit here deliberating, my hard earned money flows, or is literally plowed from my door. I think I need to buy this monster of a machine. Stop making girly-girl excuses, be a woman, invest in the machine, and happily snow blow my driveway.

Frugality means sometimes spending to save. Over the years, how much have I already spent on snow plowing? I could have already bought a truck with a plow.

To be sure, all my emotional barriers aside, the purchase of a snow blower makes excellent fiscal sense. But I am in the process of simplifying, not adding big mean machines to my cluttered garage. Well, better a few useful machines than the useless clutter that now resides there. Poor garage.


Hopefully I can allow my intellect and good sense to override my emotional barriers. As I write this, my barriers seem sillier and sillier. We shall see.


Do you have panic over owning too many big machines, things that are not liftable? Is it just me with these issues? Is it just me that feels safer with junk than machines?

Creative Clutter - my plan

I am a creative person whose creativity has become a sort of curse. I have attic and garage dedicated to my "creativity clutter," there are sundry items that are destined to become creativity projects. Here are some examples:

• jars/ bottles that will be re-made into votive holders & glasses
• fabric fabric fabric - for so much sewing
• old clothes - for remaking
• yarn - you can imagine
• carpentry tools - because i love to make the old new again
• paint/ sand paper/ rags - for all my "painting projects"
• art supplies - becuse I paint canvas
• newspapers - I want to make handmade paper
• ...and much much more

My plan for this clutter and disorder is to containerize by topic starting with the creative project for which I have the least amount of "stuff". The glass art is the first candidate. Having this clutter containerized transforms it into "creativity supplies" and allows me to pull it out whenever I want to work out some creative juices.

 Once I am done I need the basic discipline and respect for my space and for my craft to simply put all the materials back into their proper container. This will keep my work area neat and organized and I will not dread working on my creative projects and avoid my "creative studio."

Prior to this, I just kept accumulating project items and putting them wherever, garage, attic. it created a situation where I felt nothing but untapped, and unsatisfied creativity. I was always living in the possibility instead of the moment. Now I can make bottle art whenever I feel like it. I can create in and be in the moment.

I plan to do this kind of organizing for all my creativities one at a time. It's a slow process, next is my painting/ art supplies.

Here is my "glass art supplies" before and after.