...letters and a ...what?

So. As per usual, I’ve had all sorts of ideas to write about and have completely forgotten all of them. #stateoflife 

I’ve been wanting to start a YT channel. Well, I have a channel, it’s called “Murf’s Mess,” but there’s only a couple of random things on it. Two things keep delaying me. First, I look like Jabba the Hut’s old maiden auntie on camera (bad enough IRL, but on camera OMG!!! nooooo), second, the husbeast is almost always around and I feel self-conscious about doing a video whilst he’s home. He’s doing his own thing and does most of it away from the house. He’s gotten all into people who travel/live in RVs and their YT channels. He wants nothing more than to buy a high-roof Transit, fit it out for a 6’4” guy and go around the country, seeing the US.

Ugh.

As much as I’d like to see a lot of the US before I cack it, hotels are my preferred accommodations, tyvm.

So, what would be on my YT channel, you ask.  The title should be a clue. There are a kabillion and one videos out there about decluttering, the different methods to do so, people who think they’re hoarders (hahahahaha…even with my extreme clutter, I’m not a hoarder), people touting minimalism as a life-style, etc, etc, etc.

The methods I’m using are konmari from Marie Kondo’s TheLife-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering andOrganizing; Fly Lady; The Gentle Art of SwedishDeath Cleaning (here is one blogger’s recap in a nutshell but you can always find the book on Amazon), and various methods I learned from an online summit where they had 26 different “experts” talking about decluttering, getting healthy, managing finances, decorating, and personal style.  Plus…you know, I’m not exactly without brains….I think….

 

A couple of notes on the methods. Konmari focuses not on what to throw away, but what to keep, what "brings you joy" and what is useful. She has you proceed by categories. For instance you drag out all your clothes and go thru them one at a time, deciding if it brings you joy. If it doesn't, thank it for its service and give it a new life somewhere else. I added the "what is useful," because none of my clothes, for instance, give me joy, but giving them all away might be slightly problematic. I doubt if I will do a category at a time the first or even second pass through things, more like, a table top will be a category. Anyone who knows me, knows flat surfaces are not safe...just. not. safe.

The Fly Lady, Marla Cilly, has some very useful techniques for decluttering, like the 27-fling boogie. I extracted what I needed from her approach and left the rest behind. A lot of the email prompts and verbiage I really don't care for and now it seems more that she's all about selling her calendars, control journal kits, and cleaning tools than she really is about helping people. Your mileage may vary.

 

Reading further will tell you all you need to know about why I'm using the Swedish Death Cleaning thing. 

I can probably film any time, as the husbeast is usually back in his mancave, watching TV or videos. Then on Fridays when I’m off work, I can edit and do voice-overs. I might get in front of the camera just so I can tell the haters to fuck off.

I mean, yo, dudes, I have enough self-loathing for a couple dozen people, I don’t need any assistance, tyvm.

I have 28 years of accumulated crap, and not as if I didn’t have a shit ton before we moved into the house, and I was working on it, getting someplace, then my mum passed away in September.

To get a little perspective on why she was like she was—marginally a hoarder—you have to consider her history. Her dad lost the family farm in Missouri during the Depression, they lost everything, packed up what they had in a 1936 Dodge (I think) pick-up with a cover on the back. Either like a box or a sort of canvas affair…I forget and of course she’s not here to ask.  Then, in the early 70s, Daddy decided to live on a yacht. And all of her stuff was either given to me or put in storage. So then, he changed jobs and they moved to Cleveland…and basically she only had her personal things, papers, writing, knick-knacks, books, etc. They rented their furniture,  In about 1974, they declared bankruptcy, and she lost her cool car (which later in life she couldn’t even remember the make. FYI it was a 1969 Dodge Dart with a 440-4 barrel like this

I drove it a lot during my senior year in HS. 

Then…in 2005, Katrina hit and she lost everything that was on the first floor of her house. Books, artwork, furniture, clothing, and favoured items. Fortunately, all the photos and papers were upstairs. And bags of clothing, which my brother dutifully brought to her…except they were all the stuff she was getting ready to donate. *sigh*

A few folders of her papers were fairly well-organised. But only a few. My daughter and I went thru I don’t know how many little boxes and totes and baskets of bills, years old, paid, AND the envelopes they came in, along with flyers, receipts, years of monthly activity calendars from her senior apartment complex (not that she ever went to any of the activities, “they don’t like me, because I’m different,” well, yeah, Mum you are, but that doesn’t mean they don’t like you, they fuckin’ don’t KNOW you LOL). One plastic tub had those benefits books you get from insurance companies, you know, the ones when you get this year’s you throw out last year’s? Seventeen years of them….

I have been tasked by my uncle to find her genealogy notes and send to him. He’s been diagnosed with colon cancer and he wants to write his memoir, and would like all the info he can get on his family. I had one box of stuff set aside already because his grandson (my cousin’s kid) wanted to work on it and I was going to send it to him; but I know there’s more here and there in her stuff. I was going thru a plastic file box, filled with mostly letters, writing, memorabilia. Just to kind of outline the task, in one folder, about an inch thick, there’s her writing, my grandfather’s writing (often you can’t differentiate), letters, clippings, a greetings card or two….and the instruction manual for a lawnmower.

Right.

Now, to be fair, if I cacked it tomorrow, I would leave no less of a confusing legacy of mish mash crap.

That outlines the quest. My crap and her crap. I’ve been trying to get three rooms mostly decluttered, organised, and decorated so they will be havens while I’m doing the rest of it. The kitchen, my bathroom, and my bedroom. I’m almost there on my room and the bathroom. There’s still quite a bit of painting to do in the kitchen, but I’ve done a LOT of decluttering and have developed the habit of doing the washing up (almost) every night. The counters are clutter free, and it’s so bloody wonderful to wake up to and come home to a clean kitchen. I actually feel like cooking!

The other aim in all of this, besides finally getting everything painted and decluttered, is I’m moving my studio into the dining portion of the great room, and the half of the garage that’s closed in and is now my studio will become storage. When it’s just the two of us, we never eat at the table; if and when we get to the point where we can have anyone over, well, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. There are several drawbacks to having my studio out in the garage: even though I had an AC vent dropped in, it’s too bloody hot for 6 months out of the year (hellooo, Texas), and too cold for about 2-3 months; there’s very little natural light; spiders love to nest in my fabric and art supplies; I’m too far from the kitchen sink (I wish I had one in the laundry area, but I don’t), and I’ll just have more room in the great room. The big Roughnecks of fabric I have in the actual garage will go in the storage area, along with a lot of other supplies and things I still need to go thru, and the family antique chairs and table my daughter wants. I used them for decades and just don’t want them anymore.

Enough for tonight. Eeeenuff already.

xxx

The Devil in the Detail

I have punished myself for over 20 years...how and why you ask?

Well, the how is simple. I keep my house in an ungodly state of ....disarray? mess? chaos? shittiness?  which keeps me not only mentally unable to do the things I REALLY want to do, but physically keeps me from doing them, too.

Why?

Good fucking question, y'all.

I had this table nearly cleared off...and it is again, and in my defense, I was shifting things around trying to clear the BIGGER mess on my cutting table. *sighs* But this photo captures my world, my mind, the clutter that has become my life. I am not truly a horder...really... No...really! lol   But...I am a clutterbug. I can use all kinds of excuses, my ADHD, depression (erm...we know the clutter actually contributes to the depression, kind of a catch 22 sort of....fing...), because I work and have no patience/energy to deal with it when I get home...or maybe I'm just lazy...

But the root of it is my child mind doesn't think I'm worthy...yeah, it's the ol' lack of self worth rearing its ugly, pathetic, moronic head again.  I wish to kill it...yes...kill it.

I actually have cleared about 18" off the cutting table...woot.  Back for more...

Trekking on...

I actually have been "making progress" (God, I hated when my mother would ask me, "Are you making any progress with your house?" A. Not your business, B. Are you 'making progress' with your nasty-ass house, and C. Would you ask any other adult that?) with the house, but other than get the top of the dryer cleared off, and a good start on my little desk in my room, there's not much to show.

My son and brother flew down on the 1st and then drove the boy's car car up to Lincoln. Junior Birdman and I went to the dentist on Thursday--I stayed home from work and we had lunch and hung out), then stayed in the cluster-fuck that is Austin traffic for over an hour trying to pick Hairy Mon up from work, and then another hour getting home. Austin has just gotten out of control...it's nowhere near as bad as other cities, but the influx of people from other places has just ballooned the traffic issue.  Our 'secret' route in the morning is now just as bogged down as I-35.

I give on on trying to give stuff away via Freecycle. I deleted by auxiliary blog that I kept for photos of things I was giving away. People are just eejits when it comes to picking things up. If I want something and they give me the address, by God, I'm there.  Anyway, picked up the perfect little table for keeping the pet food bin on. And yes, I said, I'll be there within the hour and I was there...and boom...home. The table works perfectly; I'll try to post a pic tonight.

Poldark is over for another year...thinking on a review of some kind....

*falls off the world for another month or two*

No...really...

New Adventure

This is the exploration of Gecko Hall (so named because of all the geckos around our house --and in it from time to time).

I'm hoping by putting this up here that I will be inclined to not only post about the progress I make (if any), but actually MAKE progress.

I apologise for the out-of-focus video. This camera is really old and I think it's about to get donated, maybe. I'd do better taking vids on either my Nikon or iPhone.

So without further ado...

Link to the video if this one won't play.

I cracked myself up watching the part about turning the light on in the studio...  what can I say? I'm easily amused.

xxn

http://www.unfuckyourhabitat.com/

www.flylady.net

WOYWW #159

Hi, Madame B here. I forgot to mention last week that it was my first WOYWW post! (I was #178...posted on Thursday. Hee.)

We had a marvelous thunderboomer in our neck of the woods today--not all of Austin got rain--lowered the temp and watered the garden a bit. DEEE-lish!

Okay, I never had to go to confession, but I imagine today's post would be a harrowing experience in the confessional: Forgive me, for I have sinned. What is your sin, child? I have allowed a large, wonderful place to work and craft get so totally cluttered with schtuff, I've had to work in the kitchen. Ooooh...I'm not sure there are enough Hail Marys or Our Fathers to cover that, but your penance is banishment from all craft stores until it's tidied up!!

So, before you click the thumbnails of DHOOOM below, a bit of an explanation is due, I think. My house is one constant reno project and things get moved about all the time.  Pic #1 is my kitchen table, because of Pics # 2-3. My studio. *sighs* I had to move things in there and then they didn't get organized at all. Today I was home, giving Valentino meds for his nastily infected eye, so I attacked the studio and started organizing fabric and project bins. Actually made some headway, too. :)

When I came in the kitchen to sit a bit, I was gessoing odd bits of things to use as tags and journals...and playing Bubbletown on the computer. Any wonder I don't get more done?

These are thumbnails, click on them for larger pics!

Bonus Post-IKEA hack

This is to make up for not really doing a bona fide post yesterday. Way back, I bought a couple of Metro shelves at Sam's. At the time they were only $70. One went in my kitchen to pad out my pathetically small pantry (read: teeny weeny closet with some shelves). I made a table top thingy from nice birch plywood and the middle shelf relieved my counters of the microwave and toaster oven. The other Metro shelf went in my sewing area to hold supplies, etc.

So, one day when I was in IKEA...they had these really great lightweight cotton bedspreads, the Bomull series, for next to nothing. Sadly, they've been discontinued, but I snagged a few before they did. When you wash them, the fabric becomes wonderfully rumply and natural looking with defined ribs.

I took one of the bedspreads and cut it into panels and used IKEA's Riktig curtain clips to make a curtain around the bottom, hiding all the really ugly stuff.

So...this is what I made:

Cat Condo-IKEA hack (photo-heavy)

Lord have mercy...I actually uploaded these pictures almost two years ago, and according to the stats on the original pictures, I took them in May of 2009. *le sigh* But now I know (aside from my terminal procrastination) why I didn't want to do this post. With the really time-consuming and awkward photo insertion tool in WordPress, this post is taking far longer than it should have!

Anyway.....check it all out....

Getting your shit together, as it were.

This, right here, scares me more than anything. It's not that my house is like this—although if you looked at my garage, living room, or craft/sewing room/studio, at the moment, you might wonder (more on that later)—it's that I'm afraid of my house looking like this. Okay,  not the one with the kajillion cats or the 2500 "pet" rats. O.M.G. But just accumulating too much crap, shit...stuff you don't need. Frankly, I look at some of those houses and wonder just how...how....when did you start throwing the empty cat food cans in the bathroom, for God's sake?  And now they're two feet deep?  I lknow hoarding is a sickness and not an easy one to tame, but some of these places look like just plain laziness. But, I'm not the expert... (just an ellipsis abuser!)

I've always been a bit of a clutterbug. Somewhere, there's a picture of my room when I was in the 4th grade. Daddy was taking a pic of my little blackboard, upon which I had printed "EXOTIC HAIRDOS" (don't ask) and in the surrounding area are piles of kid stuff.  My brother got the neat genes, I got the clutteriffic genes. There is a reason, though. My mother took the time and taught my brother how to do it, and him being a tractable, amiable sort, took to it quite nicely. By the time I came along, 5 years later, her approach had changed, but also, me being the distracted, stubborn, ADHD* type...she would finally give up and just come in and do it herself.  That set a bad precedent, lol, but not at all my mom's fault.** I guess subconsciously, I just figured someone else would always bail me out of my clutter-prison. Sort of a Cinderella complex.

The weird thing is, I can organize the hell out of things...but let me get started projects? Oh...dear...  While I'm working on any given project, I'll think of a dozen other things I could ALSO do and drag the materials out to look at them, and then lose interest in all of it and move on to something else.  The ADHD has the weird affect of making you avoid things. I look at a pile of stuff and literally do not know where to start, so I go read a book. There's also the perfectionism theory put forth by Marla Cilley.  "You can't do it perfectly, the way you want to now, so you don't do it at all."   Between the ADHD and the perfectionism...oh, man.

This past weekend, my mother and I drove down to visit my aunt and uncle.  I won't use her real name, but Auntie Di is one of those pre-programmed, born-organized, never in a fluff kind of women you admire, wish to emulate, and hate all at the same time. There's never a speck of dust or anything out of place in her house. Ever. You can't catch her with her guard down. Her pantry is always stocked, her kitchen neat and spotless. She works her butt off in her own business, she and my uncle garden (we had a salad with winter greens they had grown themselves. In Texas!). Oh, wait...I forgot, her myriad plants were still sitting in groups by the garage, waiting to be distributed around the yard in their spring and summer locations--they'd just taken them out of the greenhouse.  *sighs*

If you're like me, you ask, "How does she do it?" Well, I'll tell you. Aliens. That's gotta be it. Aliens.

No, seriously. Here's the secret, as Marla's site will tell you: Routines.  I'd bet you a month's salary if I sat down and asked Auntie Di about her routines, she'd say, "yep, every day I do this, and once a week, I do this, and once a month this."  Because I know that if you clean before you see the dirt (or pile of crap), you'll never see the dirt. I also gave a lot of thought to the notion that you'd never, ever find Auntie Di sitting down playing a stupid-ass computer game for hours. She reads, she watches some TV, and she and my uncle have their cocktails on the deck at dusk...well deserved rest time. But I know that lady is up and doing things all day. And it shows. She's in better shape at almost 74 than I am at almost 60.

So, Auntie, you should be happy, because it's more you prompting me to get things cleaned up and organized than all those gruesome pictures of houses that should more than likely be bulldozed.

As to the rooms that need the most help, really only the living room has no excuse, except that I used it as a staging area for crap from other rooms while I was working on them...and so it hasn't gotten cleaned properly in a long time. This is open-heart admission, here, folks...but I still won't go into detail until I post the after pics. :)

*donning deep-shit diving gear now* If you don't hear from me in a week, call out the Texas Rangers...I've most likely gone down in a crapalanche.

 

*I was not actually diagnosed as ADHD until I was 49...and sure did 'splain a lot, Lucy.
**I've done the same thing with my son, it's easy to do without realizing you are.

Simple Ikea hack

Take one of these. Which is designed to hang on the wall and hold these and these; put it on your laundry room wall and presto!

Digging around, planning, thinking...

First off, I'd like to say how disappointed I was to find that this lady is no longer keeping this blog smoke and ochre. Rats.  There are so many nice, nice pictures and all on it. But, you know...a kabillion, bazillion, and 93 blogs on the intarwebs and so little time.

Now that the energy devil is not sucking my aura away every day, I'm finding I have enough get up and go to get a few things done. After we decommissioned the old building on Friday, I skated.  R had the day off (LBJ's birthday, doncha know), so he took me to work, went home, slept in, then came and picked me up. We didn't do much..picked up Taco Bell and came home. I crashed at some point and foo...what did we do Friday evening. I don't even remember....OH! Crap, of course! Sylvan's party! Oy, such a knucklehead I am. Her first novel is coming out, officially on Tuesday! I've read the first...second?...draft, but changes were made after it went to the publisher...anyhoo, her BFF, the self-same Laura of Pushing Furniture fame, threw a surprise party. R, W, and I went. It was fun, and we totally surprised Ms. Author. :D

Then we came home and I was kind of sick at 4 AM. Nauseous...and for awhile didn't know which, erm...end....would be a problem (hoping that it wouldn't be one of those, ah...double-ended things. I HATE that).  But as soon as I "went," the nausea went away and I was able to go back to sleep. Got up about 9:40 yesterday and spent a good bit of the day washing dishes and general clean-up, then went to Lowe's and Tar-Jay. Spent way more money than I should have. Dammit. But I had most of the $50 GC Laura's BF gave me for my birthday left. I bought a composter thingy.  Now to get it set up.  I had made a really cool FREE composter out of hardware cloth and a hula-hoop, but the dog can knock it over too easily to eat the scraps and eggshells. I'll use that for grass and weeds before adding to the bin.Dorky dog. I got some plastic potted plant pans, a nifty cobalt blue glass mister (on clearance for $1.62!), and some hose parts to repair hoses. At Target, I got some groceries, another pair of black leggings, and a few items of make-up. Yeah, make-up. Gotta problem with that? ;)

I also picked up a metric-ass-ton of paint chips at Lowe's and then sat on my bed and played with kitchen design until two AM!

One of the reasons I never get anywhere is...well, it's a many-layered thing...like an ogre. It is my decorating ogre. I can't make up my mind...then I have no money...and I change my mind...things go out of style...I have no money....I get more craptastic hand-me-down furniture that needs "fixing" (refinishing, etc.) and just looks like early Salvation Army meanwhile....then I change my mind...and I can't decide on a color scheme...ad nauseum.

I've gone from warm, earthy tones in the great room to working off the grey and charcoal palette in a print I have, back to the warmer tones.  I want a mind of Mexican feel to the kitchen and since the two rooms are, um...rather linked, to suddenly go to greys and blues would be weird. Also? I have this olive fabric, like 22 yards of it, for a slipcover for the sofa, and it wasn't fitting in with the greys in my mind. Well, it would, but there are tones of blue, charcoal and a deep, deep red-brown in the painting. I dunno, it might still work.  Otherwise, I'm not sure what to do with that piece. Feh.

So anyway, here's the latest grouping, sort of, of colors. It seems a bit washed out on my monitor. paint link

There'll be more of this, but I started this post three days ago, so I'm posting now.

Things needing done around the house

Each one of these is a project--and a story--unto itself, and will engender a list, or lists, of its own.

• Repair pavilion


• Sort, organize,purge bedroom and closet


• Build my bed


• Build outdoor cat run


• Build and install catwalks, hidey-holes


• Tear down roof over back deck


• Demolish existing deck


• Build new deck cover, screened in


• New deck..patio...?


• Landscape front yard


• Landscape back yard


• Repair drain in hall bath


• Replace tub, surround in hall bath


• Floor in hall bath


• Repair or replace dryer....or put up permanent clotheslines?


• Replace garage door


• Build kitty loo


• Finish sewing/craft/studio/office...room...space


• R's bedroom...paint, floors, etc.


• Kitchen...OMG.


• New curtains in bedroom


• Rework wall'o'books in living room


• Finish purple desk


• Finish washstand


• Finish "buffet" chest for kitchen


• China cabinet project


• Dining room table and chairs


• What to do with family antique chairs?


• Table for deck/patio


• Coffee table madness


• Slipcover for couch and Loveseat


• Paint and attach plant platform to top of dog crate


• Crabitat project


• Tame the jungle in the kitchen


• Finish building R's chair (I've only had the wood--already cut into the proper pieces--for 11 years...ELEVEN)


• Put a coat of wax on Big Dot's bookcase


• New colors for bedroom?


• Scrape that GOD-AWFUL popcorn texture off the ceilings. Can you believe my Auntie J LIKES that shit? I'm thinking of sending it all to her in a box when I'm done.  When  they remodeled the house they're in now, she asked for that crap, on purpose, and had sparkles added....  >.<  This is a woman with exquisite taste in everything...except, apparently, ceilings.

The Daily Bull 8/15/10

Was supposed to Had told bossman I would go in and finish the library this weekend. Just don't have the energy, thank you very much. My house, never in the best shape to begin with, has REALLY been suffering from my lack of energy and being in such pain when I get home (damned move). Now that things are settling down a bit a work, I might be able to muster up enough steam to get my kitchen back in order. It's amazing how quickly R & W can mess it up.  You know...if they paid for that talent...

In other news, R has been commenting a lot on some website about smart phones or something. First he won a mouse, then a keyboard, then a $100 GC from Amazon, then another one... Then this past week, they emailed him and invited him to take part in some conference or other in Bellvue, WA. All expense-paid weekend AND he comes home with a prototype Win 7 phone. How fleeping cool is that? Finally, his writing starts to pay off! *gigglesnort* ETA: and then he won another $100 GC after all that!

Figured out how much money I had left. If I don't pay one bill (a certain credit card that's now really past due) I can get us by with cheap bread, bologna, beans, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches...with the odd potato something thrown in. Going in to start a pot of beans in a minute and will make some kind of bread to supplement.

It's just so bloody hot out. The A/C struggles to keep up and if you go outside, your core heats up and it takes forever to cool off. I hate the heat; why am I in Texas? Why?

Half an hour..then I can go turn on the sprinkler in my front yard.

Classic scene this AM...letting Abby out...she dashes in her run, bounding six feet in the air, chasing the birds out of her territory. LMAO. They love the seeds in the overgrown wild sunflower jungle out there. I cut one down...with a tree saw! it was easily ten feet or more (I couldn't tell because it had fallen over) and the stalk was almost as big around as my chubby wrist. I think I will pull them up next year and plant more sedate hybrids in a controlled area. Geesh.

Stolen from the Mistress of Wildebeests. (man, that sounds so wrong)

House Beautiful's Color Personality Quiz

1. What's the first color you see in the morning?

Depends which side of the bed I'm facing. Mostly though, stripey cat butt.



2. What color are your eyes?

Blue. No, green.      aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!



3. What color do you wear the most?

Probably blue. I have a very boring, nondescript wardrobe (if you could even call it that).



4. What color do you never wear?

Orange! (well, except for burnt orange) and certain colors of green, yellow, and most shades of purple.



5. What color do you wear when you want to feel sexy.

Sexy? Me? Surely you jest.



6. What color gets you the most compliments?

Teals and turquoises are the best. They bring out my eyes and look very good with my redhead's complexion. (I'm now grey, but I still have the coloring)



7. What color is your lipstick?

Lipschtick? Vot iss dis lipschtick of which you speak?



8. What color was your living room when you were growing up?

I lived at 17 different address by the time I was 17...I think I remember a gold living room, but I'd be willing to bet almost all of them were some shade of off-white, ivory, cream, ecru, oyster...



9. What color was your bedroom when you were growing up?

Again...17 places. I had a couple of favorites, though. When we first moved to Lincoln, we painted my first bedroom a robin's egg blue.  It was light and cheery. After my brother moved down to the recroom in the basement, I got his old room and it was dark brown.  About the time my depression started...hmmm?  When we moved out to the country, I got to pick the colors in my room, and I picked a peacock blue and a bright apple green. I LOVED that room.  I'm going to try and reprise the colors in my sewing room.



10. What color are your sheets?

One set is a mellow gold and the other a deep avocado? Olive? not sure what flavor of green you'd call it.ETA: recently bought a set from IKEA that are a deep, luscious, eggplanty-purple.  Can't wait to put them on the bed.



11. What color was your favorite crayon as a child?

"Prussian Blue"



12. What color is your car?

Black



13. What color was your prom dress?

One was black velvet, another dark blue velvet, but the one I wore to both my junior and senior proms (different cities, states, and schools) was a kind of greenish gold and white brocade...sort..of...thing.



14. What's your favorite gemstone?

Garnet, Moss Agate, rainbow fluorite, onyx.



15. What is your favorite flower?

I have to pick one?!?!

16. What color makes you happiest?

A true, clear cobalt blue.  I can stare at cobalt glass forever. Although lately, I've been getting happy vibes from saturated wild colors like pink, turquoise, and purple.



17. What color depresses you?

It's very funny, blue is my favorite color, but unless it's dark either as an accent color or paired with lighter walls, I can't stand it on walls anymore (except in S1ren's bedroom, for some odd reason...). I guess I've lived too long or something, it just looks soooo dated it's depressing.



18. What color calms you?

Blues, as long as they aren't on the wall.



19. What color makes you grind your teeth?

Orange! Yellow on cars and a certain shade of purple.  *ralf*



20. What color would you like to try, but are scared to?

Bright saturated colors in decorating.  But Imma gonna do it!!

Teasing the Universe

I’m not sure the Universe will survive this…I actually finished another project.

Okay, so it’s been slightly over a year since I finished the Cat Condo (and now it's taking me forever to write the post on the cat condo), but I took much less time to get this one done.  I had this bookcase in my bedroom that was 8 feet tall and 42 inches wide, and because it started out life as a packing crate, only 7 inches deep.  I got the crate from Texas Instruments when I worked in the facilities department and R and I had added some cheap lumber and made it into a bookcase for his office (which is now my bedroom). It was primarily for paperbacks, VHS tapes, and DVDs and was perfect for that.  There were 6 upper shelves all just high enough for tapes/paperbacks, then two more “medium-sized” shelves that were about trade-paperback height, and then a slightly higher one, and then one more on the bottom that is abut 11 3/4” high, with a brace in the middle (behind the computer screen in the pic).

I had R cut the top 5 shelves off and trim the sides off to make three separate boxes. The bottom now sits on my desk and the top part formed three floating box shelves in my bedroom. I anchored 2x2s to the studs. Because of our craptastic builder, the studs are 24” on center (instead of 16”) in that room, so the right end and the middle I secured with 4” wood screws to the studs and the left end I had to secure with a toggle bolt. The 2x2s are cleats to which I screwed the boxes.  Just waiting for the touch-up paint to dry.  (When the room was R’s office, the case was unpainted, when I took it over I painted it “Cotton Whisper” to go with the “Pensive Sky” walls, and one “Painted Turtle” accent wall”



This is the base, in my office/studio/sewing room (ig..look at the clutter!)



And here are the three floating shelf boxes..the camera kind of “wide-angled” it, so they look warped, but they really aren’t.  And they are all the same size, level, and evenly hung, even though the pic doesn’t show that very well. I only had to buy corner braces, an 8’ section of 2x2 (I had one piece already), and some 4” wood screws. All the rest I had. This is the “Painted Turtle” accent wall, and the color is off in this photo, of course.  It’s a deep, cool warm green...and yes, the green in both pics is the same color.

Wheee!  Can’t wait to get my stuff up on them…Dry paint, Dry!!

What a marvelous thing.

A clean fridge is a marvelous thing.

A clean refrigerator. Aaaah. My hands are raw and I've dripped soapy water from one end of the kitchen to the other, and most of my groceries (except dairy) sat out all day. But the fridge is all washed and the crap cleaned out.  I took out every shelf and door pocket, took them apart and scrubbed 'em with Method Purple Spray (which, by the way, works better than anything I've ever found on that tough, sticky kitchen grease), and also with soapy water, rinsed and dried, and reassembled them.  Also took a bunch of stuff out to the compost. The person who messes it up will not be a happy camper.

The freezer side is next. Then to conquer the rest of the kitchen. Ennui be damned!

Oh, and the spousal unit laughed his ass off at me taking this picture.

Everything but the kitchen sink.

Taking apart my fridge and washing all the various trays, drawers, and parts has sharply reminded me why I want one of these:

I currently have the original, cheap-ass, shallow, stainless steel double sink that came in the house. If you look at a dish the wrong way, water floods your counters. I would dearly love to have a sink like this one.  Image from Southern Living.

The House, so far...or confessions of the organizationally challenged.

We've lived in this house for exactly 20 years and 1 month (not counting the 4-5 months I lived in an apartment by myself, but that's a whole other story). It was built by a less-than-reputable builder, Nash Phillips/Copus Homes or NPC. Back while this subdivision was being built but before I'd heard of it, I was dating a guy whose mom lived in a fairly nice neighborhood in the south part of the city...why am I being coy? If you know who or what NPC Homes was, you'll know where I am, so what the hell. In South Austin, off of William Cannon. This boyfriend was the first person to tell me the other names for NPC: "Nails, Paper, and Cardboard" and "Not Properly Constructed." The year after we moved in here, a tax adjuster for Travis County said he had been one of the original owners in the little exclusive condo neighborhood attached to the bigger development of single-family homes. They had a HOA and tons of issues with NPC...he added the epithet "Never Pays Contractors."

After 20 years of living here, I've added my own: "Nothing Per Code." The sheet rock is cheap, too thin, and barely taped; none of the plumbing was installed correctly--we're still waiting to find the money to have the hall bathtub drain fixed (as in new stuff, properly installed), so we can replace the flooring in the greatroom--on long walls, there's only 1 duplex, instead of the 2-3 there should be; everywhere we've torn up flooring, there's been some cryptic message scrawled in black marker by an inspector "not plumb" with an arrow pointing to the wall, is my favorite. But the single biggest code whanger I've found was brought to my attention by the guy who bought the house next door. He's since sold and moved, but I remember one day, not long after he moved in. He was furious. He'd bought the small footprint, 2-BR house with the intention of adding on a second story, only to find out that the studs were 22 inches on center. If you're not the constructionly type...studs are supposed to be 16 inches on center. The builder saved about a third of the framing costs right there. My studs run 22-24 inches on center (and no rude jokes, please).

Since NPC went under, Nash Phillips came back and started Wilshire Homes here in the Austin area. As far as I know, they are very nice, well-built houses, in fact, we had looked at some up in Round Rock. Either he learned his lesson...or another thought occurred to me. Perhaps the people working for NPC were robbing the company blind, some sort of concerted effort by a superintendent, etc. to skim as much as they could. Imagine, if you will, NPC buys enough wood to properly frame out the entire subdivision. But the contractor, because he knows he's not going to get his money anytime soon...skims 1/3 of the 2x4s. That's a fair chunk of change, and in these cheap little houses, purchased mostly by first-time, low-income buyers, who's going to notice? Makes you wonder.

None of this really has much to do with my dilemma, except that the house is built of cheap materials which are now falling apart. Not horribly...yet. But enough that the house really needs work. Add to it my proclivity for STUFF and we have a problem. Add to it my total lack of energy when I get home and we have an even bigger problem. Add to that my ADD and ...well... Anyone who knows an ADD person knows that we tend to start a whole lot of things, but never finish them, which of course adds even more crap and inability to decide even where to start. My doctor, who's a sleep specialist (never, ever tell a sleep specialist you snore...), says he's not sure he believes in adult ADD.  eh...doc? So I guess we grow out of it?  Doc, that's like saying someone will grow out of their eye color. Supposedly, all my symptoms can be explained by sleep deprivation.  That's fine, but I'm not sleep deprived, as long as I actually go to bed on time. I also find it hard to believe that certain behaviors specific to ADD are caused by sleep deprivation.  Like starting a project or taking on a position in a group, and then losing interest, but meanwhile, you've gone gung-ho into it, and have all the tools, books, materials, etc. only to leave them behind...usually in a pile somewhere and start another project. Or, be working on a project and think about something else you could do with an item in your hand and go dig out all kinds of fabric, etc, to look at and then leave that out.  Then later, you want to clean up, but literally do not know where or how to start.  Inability to concentrate? Sure, I could give that one over to sleep deprivation...except that it's been going on all my life, and I've only been snoring since I got really overweight....

Any who...back to the house. In some regards, you could say I'm a type of hoarder. But I can throw things out, I can organize them, I can give them away...having the energy to do that and enough time to think about it, that's something else. Depression...did I mention that part, too?  Crap.  Well...and you can see just how easily I get distracted by reading this, yes?

This started out about my house and all that needs to be done...stayed tuned for part the second.

Cinderella and Prince Cleanemup

My foray into humor yesterday left me wondering, why IS my house such a wreck? Yes, I’ve always had issues with being tidy, but the underlying house was always clean and it really only took a short time to tidy up, once I got around to it. But for the past 15 years, I’ve had increasing issues with finding that round tuit and things get dirtier and pile up. I’ve tried FlyLady (I think the crappy fuchsia and purple layout keep me at odds, I'm not sure), I’ve tried treating my ADHD, I’ve laid out plans, lists, and routines, given stuff away, thrown stuff away, and stored things until I could deal with them…but it just gets worse.

For the last eight years, I’ve given myself a break because I was diagnosed with ADHD at 49. Then I determined I cannot form a habit, even a bad one. Fly Lady says it’s perfectionism, and I agree to some extent on that—I find myself looking at something and thinking, oh, I could pick up that little bit, but rationalizing, “I can’t do it all right now, so that won’t really do any good.” I’ve called myself every ugly name in the book: fat, lazy, worthless, stupid, inept…

But this week, a couple of things happened that made me re-evaluate the situation. First, my daughter’s best friend since high school came in town for their 20th reunion. I adore (I’ll call her Annie) and always want to see her when she comes in town, so I met the two of them at a local Austin café, Thunderbird Coffee in Brentwood. We spent a lot of time talking about parents, and Annie’s mom, who was my best friend for years, but we’ve drifted apart since she moved away. I can’t divulge what was talked about, but suffice it to say that things weren’t always rosy between Annie and her mom. I stopped and asked them something like what was the biggest life lesson you learned—one way or the other—from your mother. Annie talked for a bit. My daughter kind of clammed up, so I was thinking okay, she probably doesn’t want to hurt my feelings. So, being the kind who sticks the needle in the wound to see if it still hurts, I asked…and you?

What she said made me deliriously happy. She said the main thing I taught her was that you get up and get what needs to be done, done. Regardless of what else is going on, some things have to happen, and I always did that. I thanked her later; if the best—or worst—thing that could be said about my parenting is that? Then I did just fine.

The other thing that happened was that my husband went on a business trip for the week. I dropped him off at work on Monday at 7:25 in the morning and won’t see him until tomorrow afternoon. And, while I cannot say that I was a tornado of cleaning efficiency, or even that I got that much done, I can say I did some things I was dreading and I got up on time, kept a regular schedule with the animals and felt like I could physically handle things that I would normally defer to him. For instance, it took me about 10 minutes to move several of the roughnecks full of stuff off the patio, sweep it, and hose it off, then I loaded the roughnecks in the van and later took them to the storage unit (yeah, I have one of those again). I had been waiting for a good time to ask him to carry them. Guess what? I can do it myself. Yes, my hips and upper back are bitching at me today, but I don’t really care.

I told my daughter that I think I have CDCS (Co-Dependent Cinderella Syndrome). Subconsciously I keep expecting someone to rescue me. Insert confused dog head-tilt here. No, I don’t expect him to clean up my crap, but I do sit around and wait for him to do things or ask him to do shit that I could very well get up and do myself (feeding the dogs, for instance, which means they get fed “whenever” instead of on the schedule that I set). My crap gets piled higher and deeper, but he doesn’t ever say anything about it. I also get resentful when other than taking out the trash and occasionally mowing the lawn, he won’t initiate doing anything without being prompted, but that’s a whole other issue….or is it? Is my resentment boiling over into what used to be an “I can do anything” attitude? Some things, I cannot do any longer. I simply do not have the strength that I used to have, but, as with the roughnecks, I obviously can do some things. And those things take a lot less time than I thought, and certainly less time than waiting for Prince Cleanemup to come to my aid.

The funniest part about this is that I’ve actually imagined what it would be like if Niecy Whatsername from Clean House showed up.

Knock knock knock (they are knocking because I took the plate loose on the doorbell in 1995 to paint and have never screwed it back in—even though I’ve actually bought a new one—so people don’t know if it works, will electrocute them, or connect them to the Whitehouse)

I open the door and give them the haven’t you read the fucking “No soliciting” sign? glare.

“HIIIII! I’m Niecy Whatsername from Style Television’s Clean House!”

Deadpan. “And?”

Flummoxed look. “Well we’re here to save your bacon!”

“I have no bacon that needs saving. I’m a vegetarian.”

“Oh, well..that was just a figure of speech. Have you heard of our show?”

“Yes. And a) I don’t have enough stuff to sell for 2-, 3-, 4, 000 bucks…heck I don’t even have enough to fix the drain for the bathtub and replace the tub and surround, which all needs to be done before I can even think about flooring in the greatroom, and that’s another 1200 to 2000…unless you’re giving money away?”

“Um, no. But you neeed us…”

“…who sent you? I want to take a contract out on them.”

Slight look of panic. "Well, we..uh…can’t we just come in and take a look around?”

“No. I don’t want you telling me what to do with my things. I’m not going to negotiate to keep my Golden Retriever furball collection.”

Blank stare.

“I kid. But seriously, who sent you?”

The entire crew breaks for cover as Niecy shouts over her shoulder, “Martha Stewart!!!”

And another one bites the dust....

(I don't feel like writing today, so I'm handing the reins over to my new life coach. Please welcome Miss Prissy Spiffup, my guest blogger.)

To say the least, I was just not prepared for what met me when I stepped in Madame B's sty home. To be fair, it doesn't quite qualify for Clean House or the BBC's How Clean is Your House. There's still walking space, the kitchen is usable and I did not feel the need to use a fire hose. But...the woman does need help.

After what I thought was a tiny dog attacked my purse, I decided that the pets needed attention first. (Later I discovered that it was just a rolling ball of Golden Retriever fur that had self-animated. No teeth.) Five...yes, count them, five cats. Oh.my.gawd. Cats. I rounded up the cat cages and was attempting to remove these offenders from the premises when simultaneously, one of them sunk four-inch long claws (I swear I saw these things in Jurassic Park) into my back, another one defecated in my purse (and then chased the fur ball across the great room), and yet a third vomited on my Pradas, whilst the two Siamese sat atop the china cabinet and laughed at me. Why was I suddenly reminded of Lady and the Tramp?

Okay, so the cats stay, but I banished them to the garage and turned around and was promptly knocked on my derriere by a black and tan fur-covered projectile...with teeth. I think I might have cursed...or passed gas, I'm not sure which. After I peeled the creature off my face, I realized it was a puppy. Ew. I stuffed the puppy into a large crate, presumably meant for just such an occasion and gathered my pearls up from the four corners of the house. Again, ew. More fur balls. Giant fur balls. Immense...oh, wait, that one was a Golden Retriever. He was nice and looked at me with large brown eyes...and then sneezed in my face. After I went home and showered...

Next day. Arrived. The cats were out of the garage and man, were they angry. The Siamese were back up on the china cabinet and I could swear....do cats whisper? The ancient black one was determined to trip me, presumably to make me fall where the puppy could lick me until I drowned or the Golden Retriever could sneeze on me again. Who'd have though such a sweet face was hiding such a sinister mind? I thought quickly and threw handfuls of dog and cat food out in the back yard and then locked the door behind them all.

Dusting off my hands in triumph, I proceeded to face the daunting task ahead. I realized I was still surrounded...not by animals this time, but by mountains of clutter, buckets of dog fur, and dust thick enough I could have sprouted seeds. I pushed up my sleeves, gritted my teeth and set to it.

I paused a moment and looked around...and panicked. Born Organized People like myself were not supposed to quake with confusion like this. Where.to.start? I scowled, I stared down the clutter. It stared back. It howled.

No, that was the dogs at the back door.

I fell back on basic training. One.thing.at.a.time. I put a wadded up paper towel in the trash can and beamed with pride. And then remembered I hadn't put on my rubber gloves. After scrubbing my hands relentlessly for 15 minutes, I returned to the scene of the grime.

The dogs were hurling the cats at the back door.

Okay, logic. I got dusting supplies from my tote and found a step ladder. Dust the ceiling fan, dust the bookshelves. Dust the electronics. I stepped outside to shake out the dust cloth.

I did not know dogs and cats were so fast. Nor that they knew how to work sliding door locks. Yes, those were my keys the Siamese just flushed down the toilet...and my cell phone the puppy was teething on.

Five hours later, when Madame B found me...digging for scraps in the compost heap...I was quite fine, no, really...