A Flaming Hot Spot!

Happy Monday to you!

I've mentioned a time or two that the breakfast bar we have is my hot spot nemesis. Since I spent so much time last week on the whole tub issue, that meant I wasn't doing real well on keeping up with other things. I literally spent most of my day yesterday scraping and yanking the caulk in the tub. I'm relieved to say, I am almost done! I've got all the big hunks of caulk out and most of the tub cleaned up. I have a section that's about 12 inches long to do before I can call it done. One would think I would get going on it immediately this morning just to get it done. Yeah, no. Look at what a raging fire of a hotspot I had (also known as the breakfast bar, counter and sink). I'm keeping it real here, friends. I may talk a good game when it comes to cleaning up around here, but I still falter big time! LOL

One of the problems is that this space is so easily accessible to plunk things onto. I'm as guilty as any of the other members in the household. Don'tcha love the doll heads? The girls "rediscovered" them and have been doing up the hair the past several days. Next to them are two swimsuits I picked up at the thrift store. Unfortunately, they were too small. So, back they need to go. Um, there's Jessica's crown from Build-a-Bear. Lots of bottles to clean up our thrift store finds from the other weekend. Oooh, out of licorice in the big glass jar, let's put it right out there so Mom can be sure to see it. LOL Lots of stuff!

Further down, you can see the corner of our new dishwasher, breakfast dishes and stuff I threw on the counter from the "junk" drawer (the top one you see) when Steve interrupted my scraping so I could  find the Super Glue. The tube we had was dried up. Ugh. I was too focused on my tub job to clean it up yesterday.

 And my sink full of dishes. I'm about the only one who does them. Steve is a sort of a lick and promise guy when it comes to washing dishes, so I don't make a fuss. I'd rather they be clean. LOL Oh, I was going to load up the dishwasher, but somehow the dishwasher never got started last night, so these got washed by hand.

So, I diligently worked on clearing out the mess. I even cleaned out the junk drawer! I didn't take a picture though. Man, how can so much stuff end up in one little drawer? 

But I was rewarded for the efforts by this sight:

(disclaimer-the side you see that is still piled up on the left side is someone else's stuff. I gave up trying to clear it off, the stuff kept reappearing-I'm trying to come up with ideas to make it less glaring)

Any guesses as to how long it'll stay like this? How about until around 2:30 pm, when the girls get home from school? Or 5:30 when hubby arrives? I'll enjoy it while they are out of the house, though, that's for sure!

*Ü*

Thanks for stopping by! I'm sure glad you liked the cards I made with the digital supplies. Since I can't quite get to my not yet established crafty space in the house, I figured making those might be the next best thing!

Meet Freida Frog and I'm Still Cleaning...LOL

Hi there!

We've had a few days of wonky weather, but hopefully for the rest of the week it's going to be nice and spring-like. On Tuesday morning, seemingly out of the blue, we had a hailstorm. Nothing destructive, but tiny styrofoam looking balls. The girls told me as I drove them to school that I didn't need to use the wipers because they'd bounce right off the window. ha, ha! Then yesterday, we woke up to snow! Thankfully neither episode lasted long and now the sun is shining. Yay!

I'm sure you didn't stop by to read about crazy Colorado weather, so I'll move on. I switched from cleaning/oiling slatted laundry closet doors to working on the cabinets in the kitchen! Do I know how to entertain myself or what? LOL

Just before I got busy, I spotted this little cutie on our breakfast bar! She was a little skittish, but I got her onto my finger and put her outside, where hopefully she is one happy little ladybug.

This is what I have to work with in my kitchen. I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but the owners before us did a lot of their own projects on the house. The story, as told to us, was the lady of the house wanted the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room taken out. Apparently her husband didn't get to that project fast enough to suit her, so she knocked a hole in the wall herself. The result is the extra large breakfast bar. I'm grateful she had the idea because I love how open my kitchen and living room are. The job was definitely a diy project as the cabinet doors can attest. Not that they are horrible to me, but definitely home-made. Good thing I'm not someone who insists on an upscale kitchen. Even if I was, I'd never get it, but I just want function mostly. So, we have these wooden cabinets. That have door fronts that don't get cleaned all that much. Gosh, you guys are gonna think I live in a pit the way I'm confessing, or rather that I've not been a very good housekeeper. Well, maybe that's true, but I have been a bit busy these past years. LOL

I've attempted to do surface cleaning, I promise, but nothing real deep. Honest to goodness, I never thought before to use Murphy's Oil Soap. But I thought of it after my closet door cleaning. So I got started this morning. Now mind you, I'm not showing you what it looks like INSIDE the closed doors and drawers, but the first picture is the before and the second picture is the after. If you don't see much of a difference, bless you. I sure do! Hubby likes to make waffles, which are yummy, but he's a messy cook and not the bestest cleaner-upper. I've scraped off countless drips of dried on waffle batter. The girls are a bit messy, too and I took off a few globs of jelly. Just keepin' it real. I was going to work on the top cabinets, but decided to save that job for another day (ie, I was tired of cleaning). So the waffle drips and jelly globs are gone and the doors/drawers are drinking in a generous portion of Murphy's Oil. Yay!

I've been working on a new knitted doll this past week or so, when I've had the chance. I finished her last night. She is going to be Amy's teacher's end of year gift. Amy told me once her favorite animal is a frog and her favorite color is green. When I saw this pattern on Amy Gaines' Etsy shop, I knew just what to do. (Dang, if you buy this pattern right now, it's on SALE...shoulda waited. LOL)

The name Freida popped into my head so I'm calling her Freida Frog.

I think she came out pretty cute. The hardest part for me this time was finding three shades of green that coordinated! I never thought that would be difficult, but it took some hunting to find the yarn I used. Basic Red Heart, but not every store sells coordinating colors. Go figure. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I sure hope you are having a good week. The weekend'll be here before you know it!

Random Stuff...

Hi there!

I hope you all had a very nice Easter Holiday. Ours was quiet, as usual, but very nice. I tried my hand at making deviled eggs for the first time...let's just say, they didn't taste as good as my friend, Felicia's! She makes THE best deviled eggs. I should have emailed you for your recipe, sweetie. *Ü* (hint, hint, pretty please-take pity on your deviled egg challenged friend) Surprisingly, they tasted better last night than they did on Easter. Go figure. I also made fresh asparagus, which was super duper yummy. I tried the canned stuff last year and let's just say...don't bother with that goop! LOL The weather was rather nice and the girls went out to play with their friends for awhile.

While they were out, I worked on completing a new knitting project. My friend, Nona of Nona's Pearls Purls of Wisdom, has recently started having knit-a-longs. Being that I don't live anywhere near her, I was pleased to see that she offers her patterns for a small fee, for out of towners like me. Well, last week, she asked for test knitters for her April project. The deadline was too tight for me to even think I could do it, but I commented and asked her to keep me in mind for future projects. She was generous enough to let me test her pattern anyway! One of the draws for me on this project is the fact that there are cables. I had never done cables before! She reassured me that I could indeed do it. I discovered I didn't have the size needed in circular needles, but I remembered that the Goodwill had a pretty decent stash of knitting needles that had been donated. So, I went, hoping against hope that they'd have what I needed. And they DID! Whoooheee! And even better, they charged me just 49 cents for them. Double Whoooo heeee!

And here's my version of the Cozy Cabled Hat that she is offering as her April Knit-a-long:

Sorry for the slightly blurry photo. When I tried taking pictures of it, the camera indicated to turn on the flash, but it was totally blowing out the hat when I did that, so I took it without the flash. I'd definitely recommend Nona's patterns if you are a knitter. This was easy to create yet challenging enough to keep you interested in the pattern. Nona's great at answering questions, too! I'm so excited to have learned simple cables! This is the child sized hat, but the girls didn't want to model it for me, darn it.

Here are the girls on Easter Morning, after their little egg hunt in the big room. Most of the photos were of the backs or tops of their heads, LOL Oh well. I was trying to get a cute shot of Amy and Jessica popped into the frame as I took the picture. Love it! Yeah, I should have edited it first, but I didn't.

I received some sweet treats in the mail to help me celebrate the holiday. Thanks, Barb and Jena! You sure do know how to make me smile! There were eggs in those adorable washcloth bunnies, but they got taken out by a couple of girlies who wanted the treats that were inside. The blue one is my Bronco Bunny! The egg in that one was orange. SO cute. And I managed to catch the glittery goodness of Barb's card, yay!!!

Yesterday the girls had the day off from school for a teacher compensation day. The teachers may have gotten a day off, but my girls didn't. (evil giggle) We worked more on getting their room cleaned up. They have shelves in their closet and bins full of junk treasures. We've been going through them and weeding out what they no longer want. They've been doing pretty well, too! But it's a time consuming project. What I was most thrilled with is that we got all the stuff off the floors!

Here's the desk we moved in there a week or so ago. The pillow on the floor is for the dog, who likes to sleep in with them. I even vacuumed that thing off. Kindly disregard the messy bookcase. That's a project for their next day off, which is April 16th. ha ha

Look at those floors! Gloriously CLEAN!!! Sighhhh Are we done? Nope, but it sure looks a heckuvalot better than it did when we started yesterday. And just so you know I'm not the meanest mom on the planet, I took them to McDonald's for lunch if they worked hard for me. That was pretty good incentive, no? LOL

And finally, today, I decided to work on cleaning some of our wood doors. Don't ask me why, there are so many other projects that need doing, but I was sick and tired of seeing how nasty our laundry closet doors looked. So, I got some Murphy's Oil Soap and straight Murphy's Oil and got to work. And I'm gonna show off my hard work. LOL

This is the closet door you see right as you walk in the front door.

I didn't take before shots, and believe me I should have for those slatted doors. Or maybe not, you'd lose respect for me, probably. LOL They are still glossy from the oil, but I'm letting as much soak in as I can before I wipe them down. I'm totally thrilled with how they look. To get in between the slats, I took a spatula and wrapped my cloth around it and used that to get in the little space between the slats. Worked wonderfully, if I do say so myself! And saved my fingers.

With that, I'm going to close for now. Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a great week!

What a Feeling!

Remember that movie, Flashdance? And the song about what a feeling? I don't remember the title, but that line has been running through my head since about 1 o'clock this afternoon.

Why?

Because it was at 1 o'clock that I finished washing the ceiling, walls, baseboards and floor of the last room that needed it in our house!

I stood there and said, I did it, I did it, I DID it! Yay!

For the record I washed the ceiling, walls, baseboards and floors in

the kitchen

the living room

the entry way

the hallway

three bedrooms

two bathrooms

the great room

the pantry

the laundry closet

and

the front porch.

Our house has just over 1700 square feet of living space. And to reach all the corners and such I had to move furniture, too.

Wow.

What a feeling.

And no, I'm not coming over to your house to do the same thing.

LOL

Actually, I think I might have aggravated a nerve in my right wrist as it's feeling a little tender. So, I'm glad it's done for more reasons than the feeling of accomplishment this brings.

I'm not done yet, though. I still have to clean out those spaces that are out of public view.

All in good time.

I want to savor this feeling first.

Thanks for indulging me as I toot my little horn about this accomplishment.

Wow.

What a feeling!

Pantry Clean Out~Digi Layout

Hello there!

Yesterday was Digital Scrapbook Day! I took advantage of a sale at Sweet Shoppe Designs and picked up a few kits. Then I tried to download the kits at the same time as everyone else. Not the smartest move I've ever made. It took forever because the server was overloaded. But did I wait? Nope, I kept trying and it took all afternoon. There were a few files that I couldn't get to download, so I finally gave up and finished downloading this morning. I didn't want to wait because I had a layout I wanted to create using the kits I bought, of course! But, I had to wait anyway, because I needed one of the files to get this layout made.

Credits:

Template: Yin Template #145 (part of Daily Digi File #8) modified-I moved some pictures around to fit better

Page Kit: All in a Day's Work Collab kit by Heather Roselli and Libby Weifenbach

Font: Pea Missy

The kit is called All in a Day's Work and I thought it would be perfect to use with my pantry clean out photos. I liked all the little appliances and tools for cleaning that were included.

Remember when I said I had finished organizing all my digi supplies? Well, I was trying to pull up my templates for layouts using 10 or more photos and my attempts were pulling up bizarre selections. So, I ended up having to re-organize that part of my supplies before I started on the layout. But now all my new supplies are tagged and my templates are organized better AND I completed this layout!

So much for just relaxing after my busy day on Friday, huh? LOL Well, it may not have been physically taxing to do the organizing, but mentally? That's another story. (hee, hee)

I have another layout in mind to work on. We'll see if I get 'r done today...

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you are having a super day!

I Can't Believe This Took ALL Day!

Hi there! Happy Friday to you!

I decided to tackle my "pantry" today. I thought for sure it would be relatively quick and easy given its small size. Um....nope. I decided to get brave and show you what it looked like before and after. Hopefully you won't think less of me after you see the before shots. LOL

This space is in our big room (the converted two car garage portion of our house). The previous owners created this little space, probably for storage. It's kind of an L shape and it also houses the water heater. The door goes out to our back yard, but we never use it. After we moved in, we added the wire shelving. Oh and Steve added texture to the walls and ceiling. What a joy that was to try to clean (not).

So here's what it looked like as you look into the space.

Turning to your left is more shelving with who knows what stashed here and there. Oh there's Steve's jimson weed plant. He brought it inside, I think to try to preserve the seeds in case it doesn't grow next year. The silver vent tube is Steve's jerry-rigged "pipe" to get the heat to go into the big room and not just warm up the pantry.

Oh my gosh...what all is up there?!!!

And what is down here??

Brace yourself. Here's what what actually IN that space!

Can you believe it? I think I said holy cr*p, I can't believe that all came out of that little space!

At 9:05am this morning I had everything pulled out of the space and the cleaning began. First, I vacuumed off the spider webs. Then I started washing down the walls. That door took some effort. Then I started washing the baseboards and the floor. E-gads, THAT took forever! I think I finally got done about 1:00 and I took a break to eat lunch and take a shower. I started putting the shelves back into place. And adjusting them because I forgot where they originally were. LOL I had to fight some of the braces to get them in place. By then it was time to head out to get the girls from school. And I STILL had to go through all the items before I could put them back. Sigh...

I started that about 3:00. And at 5:00 I had finished vacuuming the big room and took the last garbage bag out to the trash. At 5:05 or so, Steve walked up the driveway from work. I had a bag for Goodwill and oh about 3 large bags full of expired food. Ugh. I definitely won't let THAT happen again.

Here's what it looks like now...

Look, there's open space!! I plan on cleaning out cupboards in the kitchen and putting things I don't use very often up there.

I discovered that the mice we had earlier found the Top Ramen soup packages and ate into a couple of them....ewwwww. But I'm pretty confident that they are all gone now because I didn't see any "evidence" of them yesterday when I was moving couches to finish up the cleaning of the big room. (whew)

I have to say I'm absolutely pooped right now. My whole body is sore, actually. But I'm SO glad to have this done!

Thanks for visiting and hope you enjoyed this little "tour" of my pantry. Just a couple more rooms to go and I'll be done with this major part of my deep clean. Then I'll move on to the stuff behind closed doors (oh my).

I'm Turning Into My Mom and Dad!

Hi there!

How's that for a title? LOL I've been wanting to blog all week, just to let you know I'm still alive (although not crafting). I've had a busy week (but then, don't we all have busy lives?) but a very satisfying one. I've got no pictures but lots of thoughts to share, so if you aren't interested, feel free to exit now. I won't mind (much...hee, hee)

So what have I been up to? Continuing the deep clean of the house, actually. I decided early this week to tackle a project that I've avoided for years. Yes, years. When we put together Amy's room/nursery, I chose a Little Suzy's Zoo theme as I love those characters. We put up molding about half way up the wall and just above that we put up a wallpaper border of those fun critters. It looked very cute, if I do say so myself. Well, as Amy got older, she got a little destructive, and she pulled off portions of that border. Just enough that it no longer looked cute. So, I don't know how many years ago now, I pulled the rest of the border down and attempted to clean up the remaining glue. For some reason that I don't remember now, it didn't work completely and I always meant to go back and finish the job. I think I attempted it, but it was going to take more time and effort and chemicals than I had to devote to the project at the time. So for years, I've looked at this remaining mess and thought I really need to get that job done.

This is the project I started on Monday. I wondered if my homemade cleaner of 1/4 cup of borax, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1/2 tablespoon of ammonia in a gallon of warm (okay hot) water would work, or would I have to go get some special glue remover? Lo and behold, it worked! Armed with lots of white cleaning rags, a Dobie scrubber (which is a sponge encased in a plastic mesh), a Pampered Chef scraper, and the cleaning solution, I started behind the girls' bedroom door, just in case. I don't know if the cleaning solution was the trick or the years of drying out time making it easy to get off or a combination of both, but I made terrific headway in the time I had that day. I finished the job on Tuesday and then started to wash the walls and ceiling. That was fun (not). Jessica had a tendency to write on walls when she was younger. Enter a magic eraser to the arsenal (God Bless the person who invented that!) By the end of Tuesday, that job I had been avoiding for years was completely done and I felt a huge sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Not that anyone else in this house has noticed or said anything, but seeing the clean walls when I go into their room brings a smile to my face. This week I also washed down the walls and ceiling in our hallway, which took a little longer than I thought it would for a relatively small space. And yesterday I started in the living room. I have one and a half walls to go. What a wonderful feeling it is to see the progress I've made with this project.

In addition to this project, the girls' school had a Walk or Wheel to School Week. The students were encouraged to walk or ride their bikes to school. Each student that did got their name entered into a raffle and a healthy snack. I volunteered to help three days this week. One morning I helped at the table passing out snacks and filling in names on the tickets. The other days I walked down to a designated spot where the kids who ride the bus were dropped off so they could walk the rest of the way to school and qualify to participate. Yesterday, the girls and I rode our bikes to school. It was a very positive experience. Although I do think it's sad they have to promote this, something that was a given when I was a kid-I know it's a different world today)

As part of this event, the school had a bike rodeo that a local company called Bicycle Colorado helped sponsor. They set up an obstacle course on the playground using cones and things for the kids to ride a bike through, demonstrating their newly gained knowledge about bicycles and safety. Kids who participated in this event got a free bicycle helmet! It was offered for students in 2-5th grade, so Jess didn't participate in this one. It was very cool, but unfortunately for me, I forgot my camera.

The reason I forgot my camera? The new session of swim lessons started and I had to change the days we go because Jessica's class was full. So, in addition to this bike rodeo after school, we had to go to swim lessons straight from school. I thought the girls had to have their bikes and helmets for the rodeo (turned out they didn't), so I rounded those up, in addition to all the swim stuff they would need. I had to pull all that together pretty quickly and I forgot to grab my camera. Oh well. It was so neat seeing Amy show off her biking skills. She wanted to go through the course a couple of times and I was worried we might be late for swim, but it worked out just fine.

On Wednesday, we had the school's Chick Fil A fundraiser night, where a portion of the proceeds from that night's sales goes to the school. After that I went to a friend's house for the evening and had a lot of fun.

In amongst all this, I've been reading a book I borrowed from the library (I've been reading books while I eat breakfast rather than the newspaper, which tends to depress me) called Stay Home, Stay Happy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It reconfirmed something I've been feeling these days. And that is I really, really enjoy being at home mom. I'm proud of the time I'm investing for my family. I don't mind that I'm working hard at getting this house in shape because I'm doing it for the people I care the most about. I am actually enjoying this cleaning process, which may sound crazy, but the feeling of accomplishment I have after I've done the work is well worth the effort required.

How does all this make me turn into my mom and dad? Well, my mom used to go to bed pretty early in the evening (I thought) and I've been doing that, too. And my dad was notorious for sitting on the couch to watch TV and he'd nod off, complete with the head drifting down (or back) with the jerk at the end as he woke up a bit. Guess what I did last night as I was relaxing on the couch? Yup...I'm turning into my mom and dad. LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by. I know I haven't been crafty lately, and I appreciate your willingness to read what I've been up to despite that. I'm hoping once this big project of washing down the walls and ceilings is done, I can devote some more time to crafty pursuits. As it is, I've been busier now that the girls are in school all day than I've ever been, I think!

Have a great weekend!

Did Some Fall Decorating This Morning...

And it sure is making me smile. *Ü*

I've checked out the thrift stores and didn't see anything that grabbed me there, so this morning I headed over to Hobby Lobby to see what they had. Would you believe I hadn't stepped foot in that store in weeks? (I used to go in at least once a week) Anyway, I knew they had their fall decorating items for 50% off and I took advantage of it. I then scooted over to Michaels and found a couple of more things I liked (on sale).

On the breakfast bar (which got cleaned off yesterday):

I had the placemat and the jars already. I just got goodies to fill them. The wooden pumpkin is from Hobby Lobby. I loved the design on it. I filled one jar with candy corn (obviously), the jar behind the candy corn is filled with pumpkins I found in a mesh bag at Michaels. Next to the pumpkin jar is a one stuffed with ribbon. I found the spool at Hobby Lobby. And the other jar is full of leaves. I picked up a garland at Michaels and ended up pulling off the leaves. Then I cut those into individual leaves and put them in the jar. I had some left over and just placed them around the display. I'm really pleased with the effect.

Outside on the porch:

The placemat is felt and I found it at Michaels. The goodies you see here are from Hobby Lobby. I found a couple of picks I liked and used them for the backdrop, a few leaves from that garland I cut apart and the pumpkins were just some I liked. The larger pumpkin on the side of the basket I fell in love with.

And for the hanging planters I had been thinking of pulling down and putting away, I'm glad I didn't. Michaels had some picks on sale for $1.49 so I got three. I got a long garland (20ft) from Hobby Lobby and cut it into thirds. Then I wrapped it around the picks.

I didn't want to get much that was specifically Halloween as my plan is to keep these out until Christmas time, that way I get more bang for my buck. That being said, on the railing on the porch I do have some pumpkin lights I picked up at a thrift store for $2. Only I didn't take a picture of that. Oh well. I will if you want, though.

I'm totally playing hooky from housework today, but I figured with all the work I've been doing recently, it's okay. All work and no play makes Jeanne a dull girl, right? And a tired one!

One final note on things that make me smile. One of the cabinets we have under the breakfast bar is a huge dark cavern. Our breakfast bar was made by the previous owner. Actually there was a whole wall there and the previous owners knocked it down to open up the kitchen. As a result, they had to modify the cabinet situation. So this particular cabinet is rather large and it didn't have any shelves. Guess what it became? A dumping ground of stuff. I've long wanted a shelf for it so I could attempt to neaten it up in there but I always put it off, not being able to come up with an inexpensive idea. That is, until this past weekend. I asked Steve if he had any left over plywood. I knew we had some brackets. My thought was to hang up the brackets and put up a shelf on them. Steve didn't think it would work without tipping over (the brackets could only go on two sides, the back and one side of the shelf). But he thought we could use a two by two as a leg to support it. That led me to decide to not use the brackets at all and just 2x2s. We didn't have enough of the 2x2, but a quick trip to the Home Depot fixed that. Steve had a spare piece of lumber that we used and he screwed the "legs" on. In a matter of minutes we had a shelf for that cabinet! (believe me when I say I've wanted to do something with that cabinet for years). So simple! I'm tickled to death about it. (It doesn't take much, does it?) Anyway, when I pulled out all the stuff from the cabinet, I found the jars which led to the decorating spree. See how it works? LOL

I'm done now...have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Have to Share...WFMW

Hi there! Yep, it's early in the morning, but this is when I do my blog reading. And I am stopping to share this with you. As you know, I'm working on doing a big deep clean of my house these days. I'm also working very hard on being more frugal so that I can continue to stay at home with the girls. Toward those goals, I have been searching for frugal cleaning tips. I've found several blogs that I am learning a lot from. There is one in particular I would like to share. It's called We Are THAT Family. On Wednesdays there is a feature called Works For Me Wednesday (WFMW) and bloggers link up there with tips and ideas. I used to by pass this thinking it would be a pain to check out ALL the links. Well, not anymore. There's a plethora of fantastic tips in those links.

Today's theme is Cleaning Tips. Ohhhhh...right up my alley. And oh my goodness...I'm learning a ton. For example if you have a Swiffer Wet Jet, like I do and really dislike forking over the money for the cleaning solution and pads, these smart women have posted that they make their own cleaning solution for it and use old rags. (Slapping myself silly...why didn't I ever think of that?) It honest to goodness never occurred to me. Another tip I read recently about the regular swiffer...use an old rag (I have some microfiber ones in my stash) and use the Swiffer to wipe down the walls before you wash them. I did this on Monday and was thrilled at how much dust and how many spider webs I was able to take down beforehand. Learning about stuff like this is so fun for me these days.

I, not too long ago, learned you can make your own detangler spray using some conditioner and water. I read about that one the day after I bought a new bottle. (grrrr-but now I know-we go through a lot of detangler because Jessica apparently has an uber sensitive head and has been known to cry even before I touch the brush to her head).

I just had to share about this today in case any of you are interested. Check out the post here and click away on the link topics that interest you (there's usually a topic listed so you don't have to blindly click on links you may not be interested in). Cleaning Tip Links

Oh and before I go...thanks so much for your encouraging thoughts on my sock {mis}adventures for Amy. I'm right there with you on probably giving up by now, but I just can't do that to Amy. She's been so patient and since Jessica has a pair, I don't feel good about not making a pair for Amy.

Happy clicking!

If At First You Don't Succeed...Try, Try, TRY Again

Uh, oh. Does my post title tell you something?

I finished Amy's socks, yay! Aren't they cute? I was so proud of myself, until...

she tried to put them on.

Sigh...

They would have fit, I'm sure of it, had I not pulled the stitches so tightly in the leg portion. There wasn't much "give" and she can't get her foot past that part.

Now I remember one of the issues I have with knitting...I'm a tight knitter, and it gets the best of me sometimes. I was so focused on not getting the dreaded ladders that I didn't adjust the tightness of my stitches past the first two on each round and so, they don't fit.

Then I get the bright idea to try those socks that are on the cover of the book I'm using. You know, the ones that broke my needle a few weeks back? I have the new needles and there's no way I can break those right (remember...I'm a tight knitter)? No, I didn't break the needle, but dang it all, I started bending the darn thing!

It's that knit 3 together stitch...it did me in. I even tried using a crochet hook to get the stitch started, but that was taking a long time and I was getting frustrated (just a tad).

So, I gave up on that sock pattern. And pulled the socks apart...again. Sigh.

Then I tried searching for a pattern I liked that wasn't just the knit stitch. Gosh, there aren't a lot of sock patterns for kids over the age of 3.

I'm back to the book and trying a small adult size pattern in that book. The foot circumference is the same as Amy's so it should work. I hope.

Here's how far I got last night.

I'm determined to get a pair made for my patient Amy. A pair that will fit.

I'll get it...one of these days. LOL

*********

I thought about making a card for World Card Making Day, but didn't. What I DID do, which is something I've been wanting to do, is get back to tagging and organizing my digital stash in preparation for some digital scrapping. THAT was a grand idea, but it takes a heckuvalot longer than one thinks to do it. I spent hours on it and barely made a dent. BUT, I WILL get it done, I'm determined there, too.

*********

In other news, if you are still with me, is I found another library not too far from me. Wait, let me rephrase, I knew about the library, just hadn't BEEN to said library, until this week that is. Oh I'm in book lover's heaven. I have to time myself so I don't spend the whole day there. I have so many books to read, I almost don't know where to start. Can you tell I've also rediscovered my love of reading...beyond the few minutes before I fall asleep at night?

Oh goodness, I checked out one called Housekeeping with Kids! I SO need to read this book. I know I need to get the girls more involved with keeping up with the house, but I don't always see the forest for the trees, and this book gives great ideas on getting my little lovelies on board with upkeep. Yeah, this might be a no-brainer to most of you, but me, not so much. And I'm not afraid to admit that!

So, while I don't have a card to share, or rather anything visual really to share, I am working busily behind the scenes to set things up so that hopefully soon, I'll be able to create and have stuff to share. Thanks for not giving up on me!

PS The mouse trap has been blissfully empty so far. (fingers crossed)

Stepping Out...15 Minutes At A Time...

Happy Thursday to you! My friend, Kari, of Kari's Scrappin' Korner, will be so happy. She wrote on her blog that she was going to start walking today, the day her kids started school. She was motivated by Laurel of Laurel's Place because Laurel recently posted her fitness goals, a fabulous album she made and the blog address of her fitness blog. Well, Kari, today I walked "with" you! *Ü* I pulled on my walking shoes and enjoyed a brisk walk through our neighborhood. The weather was gorgeous and I really enjoyed it. The battery in my mp3 player is dead (gotta plug it in), so I just listened to the music of the birds and life in the neighborhood. I actually walked for 35 minutes and realized there are lots of streets in my neighborhood I could walk...some are fairly even and some are on somewhat steep hills. Makes me wish we didn't have snowy winters, but if I can, I'm going to try to walk every week day outside.

As I was walking, I was contemplating starting a new blog for journaling my not specifically crafty posts and ultimately decided against it for now. Mainly because I strongly doubt I'd keep up with it. LOL Plus, I'm trying to streamline things, not necessarily add another to do, to my list (which I'm going to start writing down instead of relying on my feeble memory) of things I want to do! So, forgive the forays into less than crafty topics, if they are not your cup of tea. But, in the end all these things will certainly work towards my Creative Bliss and so to me they would fit as subjects to write about.

I mentioned earlier that I was pretty much gonna try a no buy philosophy or at the most, a very extremely limited buy, in regards to crafty stuff. Gotta work on delinieating between the needs and wants. And I'm applying that to the household stuff, too. Tightening the old belt, as it were. To that end I've been picking up some interesting reads from the library. One book is called You CAN Afford to Stay At Home With Your Kids, and while it was written in the late 90s (so some financial figures are off a bit) the basic principals seem very sound. It made a lot of sense to me about things one can do to be able to live well on one income. I've also borrowed Frugal Living for Dummies, The Complete Tightwad Gazette and The MomsTown Guide To Getting It All. Well, true confession time, when I checked out that last book, I thought it looked familiar and I finally checked my bookshelf...Oops, I already bought that one! So the book went back to the library and I'm reading my own copy. LOL

Anyway, the gist of all this is I'm finally working on some internal stuff that I've been wanting to do in addition to getting the house cleaned up. Mom's starting to take a little bit better care of herself, so she can care for her family better.

Another thing I'm working on is Flylady. I've know about and have been subscribed to her emails for several years (I get them in digest form, not individually, so I get one or two emails a day at most). Frankly most of the time, I glanced at them and moved on to other things in my inbox. But, for the past few weeks I've been reading most of the digests again and gearing myself up for the whole You Can Do Anything for 15 Minutes philosophy.

Speaking of which, my 15 minutes for typing this up are done, so I need to close for now and get working on my household planner. I hope I won't bore you to tears by posting stuff like this (and links) from time to time, but in the end all of this stuff may help me get back out into my craft room. *wink, wink* without feeling any guilt that I'm neglecting something I need to be doing. Maybe it'll help you, in some small way, too.

Have an awesome day and thanks so much for taking the time to visit.