Planner Envy and other bits of boringness.

PLANNER ENVY.

You know, back in the day, guys used planners. My dad used Day-Timers for YEARS. He called it his brain. Women tended to use desk diaries, but the more women came into the business workforce, you saw Day-Timer offering femmed-up versions and planner purses, etc. I had Day-Timers and planners long before it became the huge THING it is now. Soccer moms, Sunday School teachers, people who think they’re really busy but aren’t, teenagers, have all gotten on the planner bandwagon. There’s been a proliferation of planners like Erin Condren, Plum Paper, Happy, you name it. If you came across this post because of the hashtags, then you probably know all the brands better than I, and all the stickers, pens, tapes, subscriptions, pantookas, and gorbnobbles available.

Nine tenths of which are solely designed to separate you from your money.

With the BOOM in planning popularity, planners are in every shape, form, colour, design, and have gotten really pricey. Plus, Acco Brands now owns most of the well-known names in planners except Erin Condren (not including ones like Leuchtturm1917, etc):  Mead, At-a-Glance, Day-Runner, Calendar Express, Five Star; they’ve even bought up Day-Timer, for fuck’s sake!

Some grand goal-planning for 2019 includes writing more. In my little box mind, I was thinking on the novel, but writing here and in my character blog are also writing, yes? I’ve added “W-writing” to my habit tracker (cue raucous, derisive laughing here). Before you asphyxiate laughing, the habit tracker is not keeping track of daily habits (except taking blood glucose readings), but just a general, keeping track of how often I do things.

Speaking of the tracker, I have:

M—Morning glucose;

P—Post prandial glucose;

BP—Blood Pressure (I don’t have an issue with this, but sometimes when I go to a doctor, it’s slightly elevated, more than likely from just getting out in traffic, etc.);

J—did I work in my Studio Art Journal? https://www.jamieridlerstudios.ca/the-studio-yearbook/ or any other Journal?;

A—Art;

W—Writing;

L—Learn:  my Irish lessons or any kind of research;
E—Exercise or work out, including my PT exercises;

H—House:  work on painting, repair, decluttering, etc.

LV—bLog and/or Video

F—Family projects like the ass-ton of photos from my mother’s place, or her letters, or all the stuff from my grandfather’s effects, boxes of books and chotskies to be sorted, sent to people or donated.

Again, these are not only a reminder to do certain things, but to keep track of just how often.

At this time I think well, I’m not working anymore, why do I even need more than a simple little “old man pocket calendar”?  I swear, you can’t even find the ones I’m talking about anymore, they were about 2”x3” and literally fit into a man’s shirt pocket.

Back to my planner planning. I’ve tried the big Erin Condren and Plum Paper planners (virtually the same, by the way) and I don’t think I actually finished a year in either, even though I used them for several years (I put all my planners from work in the big shred bin when I retired, but I think I finished out several of those all the way). But those are just too big to carry around and too much space goes wasted in them for me. If I just wanted to keep track of appointments, a simple month-at-a-glance would suffice, but there are other things that go in a planner…isn’t that why they’re called p-l-a-n-n-e-r-s?

I’ve tried starting DIY planners before and I think I got rolled up because there were too many future dates for work. 

But….I don’t have to bloody include job-related shit in my planner any longer HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

I’ve been watching a couple “bullet journalers” on YT and random others if they pop up and look interesting.

AmandaRachLee https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk9aeo2A6a1fg3VeRueTn9w

Cindy Guentert-Baldo https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZSl2jCSort1fHUI8oeNOuQ

Everyone has such slick, pretty layouts and lettering. Anything but plain printing or a version of this

ends up looking like a 2^nd grader did them. They have this pretty script lettering, that…yeah.. *eye roll*

https://bit.ly/2rYk7TP like I could do that. Not.

Updated:

I was going to use the Lemome bullet planner (the one I have has been discontinued), but decided to finish out my ‘notebook from hell.’ I got it a couple years ago from Office Depot for about $6, I think. It has graph-ruled paper in it and is roughly A5 size. It has everything in it:  Notes on my novel, notes on my blog character, designs and plans for things like my studio and the reno of my pantry, mind maps, DIY calendar pages, to-do lists, travel plans and lists…you name it. I’ve covered the cover, front, back, and inside with various stickers. I’d do a flip of it on YT, but it would be the most boring flip-through video ever.

There are quite a few (about ¼-inch thick) pages left, so I’d just rather use it for now. When full, it will not be thrown away as it will still be a valuable reference.

 

Front Cover

Back Cover

Notes for the pantry reno

Year forward

395th version of the studio/living room plan

 So a whole lot of what I previously wrote might go by the wayside, just sayin’.

As for updates, I had the ‘dreaded scope’ this past Monday, nothing alarming, but the doc did take three biopsies; keep your fingers crossed.

And I’m finally getting the bunion on the right side done. They’ve been giving me grief for a loooong time. Got the left done probably 15 years ago, maybe a bit more. They did the big one on the inside, the little one on the outside and I had a four-inch steel rod in my second toe to straighten it. This time, just the big one on the inside.

Any Questions?

...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

14 July 17 -- Happy Bastille Day, or how I became a puffer fish.

Moving along, at a tortoise's pace, with the house. Every small thing is a victory, I guess. Recently I've been watching this Irish chick, Laura Hutchinson, on You Tube. Her channel is called How to Get Your Shit Together.  She's gotten a little theatrical lately, but I love her stuff, she's Irish and sweary and that's right up my alley. She's a big proponent of the KonMari method of "tidying," which really should be "decluttering," as tidying is dusting and hoovering and the day-to-day routines that keep your place tidy once you've found all the furniture and floors...

Apparently I'm late coming to the table on this, the book has been around for a couple of years and there are a kabillion and one videos on YT about how everyone's "KonMaried" their digs. But...if you're like me and haven't seen it yet it's called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. Even if you didn't know she's Japanese, you'd figure it out soon enough by reading. Among other things, she tells you to greet your house each time you come in and thank your belongings for their service...as you're shoving them out the door. 

I got the paperback version because it was the cheapest, I'm glad I did. I made notes in it, made it mine...and lent it to my daughter. But it comes in all formats from audio to hardcover. I haven't really started "doing" it yet, but the basic advice is sound. 1. take one category at a time (e.g. clothes); 2. take them all out and put them in one place; 3. handle each and every item; 4. decide if the item "sparks joy"; 5. if it does, keep it, if not, thank it for its service and discard 6. find a permanent place for things you keep.*

"Sparks joy" is open to interpretation, of course. For instance, your toothbrush or dishcloths are not going to "spark" any fuckin' joy...but you need them. Discard, or as Kondo keeps saying "throw away," is of course a multi-layered thing. Garage sales, charity shops, freecycle, Craigslist, etc....the last thing you want to do is actually bin it, and only if other options are not apropos for the item,. I have several options here: a creative reuse shop run by the city where they resell craft and art supplies to support the city arts program in schools; the Habitat for Humanity Restore, which takes all kinds of things; Freecycle; the hazardous materials depot for those cans of paint and bug killer you no longer need; and of course the good old stand-by: Goodwill. I don't use Salvation Army because of personal philosophies. 

This past weekend I took boxes of shit I'd decluttered to all those places--nothing freecycled or garage-saled, however.  It felt sooooo good, too.

I've been working on a project, making a china cabinet I got from a friend work for me and here's how massively stupid things had gotten. I found myself working on top of the washer and dryer and a little dresser because EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TABLE had shit two feet deep on it. I stopped and literally said out loud, "What the actual fuck? just clear off the tables already, what is WRONG with you???"   You don't know how tempted I was to just take my arm and literally sweep everything off on the floor. But then I'd just have a pile o'shit on the floor. Not helping.

I got stalled mid clear-off because I had to go clean mum's kitchen...that's a whole other thing, there...

I actually started this post because I woke up feeling just a tad nauseated and resolved to eat very little and as cleanly as possible today. I had waaaay too much sugary crap yesterday (omfg that cherry pie was delish); I'm not even going to test, I just don't want to see the number. I have also stopped taking both of my acid reflux meds, famotidine and pantoprozole. The famotidine was making me gain/keep enough weight as it was, adding the pantoprozole made me feel like a puffer fish, like overnight. 

So, today's program: tea and fruit, no fucking gerd meds (going with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a cup of cold water before bed--sounds counter-intuitive, but it works), and clearing those tables!

Cheers!

*ETA for the time being, I will have to treat each table, then each room as a "category."  More on this later.

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...

Used art supply haul

I always do this to myself, decide to paint a wall or some such DIY thing that delays what I really need to do. But...in my defense, I want to get the walls painted before I start moving furniture around...so I don't have to move it around again. Logic, right?  Right??

So, I'm moving along, getting things done and for some unknown reason I decide to browse Craigslist...you know, scan the free stuff...meh, nothing catches my eye, then...oooh...art supplies!

So I end up with this total haul of used art supplies for 20 bucks: Pastels ( a LOT of pastels), couple dozen pastel pencils, brushes, close to 60 tubes of oil paints (many still good), pencils, blending stumps, small stack of paper, a stack of nice-sized pieces of canvas, a small tin of watercolours, a painter's box, several cans of fixative & retouch varnish, a bottle of Liquitex gesso, a jar of Golden gesso, a jar of Liquitex gel medium (never opened), two unopened quarts of odorless turpenoid, a half-full pint of Grumbacher turpentine, two jars of picture-hanging hardware, 4 palette knives (3 really nice Holbein ones), an ink brayer, an unused bar of castile soap, two large-ish baskets, a stack of art books, and an antique knife...oh, and a small plastic funnel (??).

The young woman I bought the stuff from said she got it from a friend and it had been his grandmother's.  This lady. The girl said she had taken a few things out, because "she didn't know what she was doing." I'm assuming she might have taken the better brushes, as the ones left were not the best...but other than that, I don't know.  Any one of the groups of things by themselves, the pastels, the stack of canvas, any 6 tubes of paint, the gessos and gel medium, or the painter's box, are each worth over $20. There are three tubes of Grumbacher in the original plastic cases, never opened, that list for $23.50, $29.45, and $29.45!

So, even If I were to give the brushes to Creative Reuse (I have a boat load of brushes) and the books, too, and throw half the tubes of paint out (I've already binned three of them)...I still came out like a bandit.

Many of the paints are no longer available, like the "Permanent Pigments" which became Liquitex. Liquitex no longer make oil paints, they have concentrated on acrylics. I remember way back in art class in high school, we dabbled a bit in acrylics and that was the only brand there was back then.

I can tell things have been stored: the oil paints have leaked out their oil in some cases, due to heat, and the brushes have been nibbled by bugs. I had that happen to some of mine....the little buggies love the boar bristles!!

So, even If I were to give the brushes to Creative Reuse (I have a boat load of brushes) and the books, too, and throw half the tubes of paint out (I've already binned three of them)...I still came out like a bandit.

It feels a bit weird, going thru all this stuff, sorting it, etc, as the lady's name is written on a lot of it, along with her address, but I think she'd be happy someone has her supplies and is using them. I took all the pastels out of the three original boxes Grumbacher portrait and landscape and NuPastel)  they were in and the other, random box the Rembrandt and Webers were in. I know some people like to curate supplies and keep the boxes and all, but I put mine in my pastel drawers--I hate having to go through various boxes to find the ones I need.

Several years ago--after not having worked in pastels for literally decades, I gave my collection to one of my best friends as she was into them at the time. I've slowly been building my collection up again and this increased it like, 3-fold.

I've also been thinking about working in oils again, but didn't want to spend the money if i decided I didn't want to keep up with it--good GODS paint has become expensive!!! I notice even Jerry's is slowly edging their prices up, and soon, like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, they won't be a discount place any longer. Tricksy.

Anyway, I bought a Gamblin medium starter kit (I just realised the little red box was not in mine 😡) and am really looking forward to trying my hand again.  This video explains the different medium types.

So...that is what has derailed the progress of house and studio this week. Tomorrow I have to make some embroidered streamers for work... So that will derail things for part of Sunday as well.

Please pardon the fuzzy pics...erg...

Basket O'Paints

Paint box w/palette and slots for boards. I'm probably going
to paint the outside of this, it's raw wood, but Ruth wrote all over it.

Brushes and palette knives. I really had to work to resurrect the
two larger brushes you see.

Stack O'Canvasses 

Grumbacher landscape pastels

12" Antique knife. Rather sharp!  Stamped "WILLIAM SANDERSON & SONS
BEST CAST STEEL SHEFFIELD" Dated to most likely mid-to-late 1800s. Crucible steel, and
very early type of plastic for the handle.

Gesso and gel medium

The long sticks are the NuPastels. The other are oil pastels my brother gave
me for my birthday in the 60s!!!

Pastel pencils

Top three sections are Rembrandt & Weber soft pastels, the bottom is
Grumbacher portrait pastels

Solvents and fixatives--those two quarts of turpenoid are worth over $20
by themselves. Just call me Zorro....

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

Zen and the Art of List-Making

Pursuant to the post about getting back in the SCA, I want to start a project book. I have one, a cheapie spiral that I made all sorts of lists in good gods...9 years ago??  *sighs* Has is really been that long ago? Where in Hades’ Funhouse does it go?  I don't really think it's been that long ago for some of it...I hope.

Okay, so, let’s see, here are the list titles, I’ll get to the individual lists later:

• Kitchen box (make cover) [the kitchen box is a Rubbermaid® Roughneck™, as are a lot of our camping boxes, so they need covers to hide the “mundanity”]
  
  
  
  • Permanent Items
  
  
  • Consumable Items
  
  
  
  


• Food box – staples


• Feastbox – regular event items


• Feastbox – court event items


• General Equipment


• Banners


• Coolers


• Tent


• Tool Kit


• Light Box


• Stake Box


• Pavilion


• Bedding


• X3 Minimum Costumes – summer


• X3 Minimum Costumes – not summer [it IS Texas, after all]


• X2? Armor


• X3 Costume Projects to Finish [well, they WERE to finish, but now to start]


• X3 Mundane Clothing/Equipment/Sundries


• Other Projects to Finish


• War List! [for Gulf War during Spring Break]

And that’s just what I have in the spiral.

Now..before I go any farther, I want to replace the spiral with a different kind of notebook. Still a spiral but different. I could supply a small office supply store with the stash of paper, pens, spirals, binders, clips, hi-liters, etc that I have. No. Really.  So, here’s the list of new SCA project notebook candidates:

• Pen-tab Project Planner – 7.25 w x 9.5 h, Lined, numbered, with a blank notes section on the right hand side.


• Cambridge, top-bound, ¼” graph paper


• 2, count them! 2 Bienfang Note Sketch Book – standard size, a little less than half of the page is lined, on the left, and the right is all blank. I already have a couple projects in one of these.


• Cambridge Executive planner pages – standard size, top spiral, roughly the top two-thirds is ¼” graph paper, the bottom is yellow and lined “Quick Notes”


• Off-brand Notes/Sketch Book – 11x9” drawing weight paper, one-sided, top less than half blank for sketching, bottom lined.


• Stuart Hall Executive Project Planner – standard size, narrow blank notes section on the left, lined on the right. So far, this one is my front-runner.

 

I shall sleep on it. Night.