tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376682912024-03-13T00:34:10.392-05:00A walk in the Parkpamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-15030482720949335332012-12-18T06:50:00.003-06:002012-12-18T06:50:57.748-06:00This is a <a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/" target="_blank">PWCR</a> kind of day. I'm having all my girlfriends over for coffee and breakfast stuff and good conversation, which I looooove, and then tomorrow at 2-ish, school's out for Christmas break! I've got lots of things on the agenda, but they're all pretty close to home and family. I'll probably share some of it later, but until then, I'm pushing the 'relax' button. Have a wonderful, slow, meaningful Christmas with the ones you love!<br />
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<a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVp1g6Y_OFaL1qVtxf4qoHQzaledJixtpZ-IvDMbNQHri2i5vOaUj66fTqEqKsZagr2kerOulHf3ROB7_zfRnZZPk_wlSpkc4_tlZY2rZG32Y_lY1zEox3EYQ36-E6wAjQObzu/s400/333323997_04bd8d6c53-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, I got featured on <a href="http://knockoffdecor.com/" target="_blank">Knock Off Decor</a> today. Well, my wreath did. Go check it out. And you might just want to add Beckie to your blogroll. Ideas abound over there. Seriously. There's <a href="http://knockoffdecor.com/" target="_blank">knockoffdecor</a> for all you department store hacks, <a href="http://infarrantlycreative.net/" target="_blank">infarrantlycreative</a> for all around crafty goodness and <a href="http://roadkillrescue.net/" target="_blank">roadkillrescue</a> for before and afters that will knock your socks off!<br />
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<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-50069916510055655782012-12-06T22:19:00.000-06:002012-12-23T12:12:16.761-06:00D.I.Y. Felt Mistletoe Wreath or The Only Christmas Craft I've Managed To Do This Year<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-frPY21tqJBd20_Gx9EJa1Nfbf951dpNVlNXOZZfT-wCTOpF_oCjr4NHf_8EZRaD07_dgeRgjNSTwALSrk0FAVPj9fOqXGaEvptI1KOemFBP1aCWRvjXlgoBkXgRVpywguyo2/s1600/IMG_4180_WreathPic_Main.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-frPY21tqJBd20_Gx9EJa1Nfbf951dpNVlNXOZZfT-wCTOpF_oCjr4NHf_8EZRaD07_dgeRgjNSTwALSrk0FAVPj9fOqXGaEvptI1KOemFBP1aCWRvjXlgoBkXgRVpywguyo2/s640/IMG_4180_WreathPic_Main.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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As the title suggests, this is, in fact, the only real Christmas craft I've done this year. I've decorated my house with all my old stuff, some newer stuff and <a href="http://www.pamelotta.blogspot.com/2011/12/crafty-christmas-project.html" target="_blank">stuff I made last year</a>, but I just haven't gotten around to making anything on my list for this year. To remedy that, last night I invited all my hardcore crafter girlfriends over for a craft night. I pulled out all my crap and laid it out on my counter and told everyone to go to town. Actually, true to form, the girls who came didn't need any of my crap because they had plenty of their own to work on. ;)<br />
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This is my inspiration. Last year I saw this on pinterest and fell in love. I quickly found out that it's a West Elm item and as usual with cute West Elm items, it was expensive and sold out. The edges of it reminded me of those fuzzy flannel blankets with knotted fringe around the edges. I wondered if I could make a wreath with a similar look. First, I looked to see if anyone else had made one, but as far as I could tell, no one had. That meant I had to put all my hacking skills aside and figure this one out on my own.<br />
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I started with a god-awful straw wreath I got at Goodwill, a string of pom-pom trim and a yard of darkish olive-ish green flannel material I found at WalMart. Yes, I know the title says it's a felt wreath, but I realized later that I was actually working with flannel. Felt would work, but it might be a little harder to work with because of it's thickness. The flannel turned out to be the perfect weight for tying all those knots.<br />
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I took the whole piece of fabric and laid it out on the counter and kind of wrapped one edge around part of the wreath, just to see how much it took to wrap it around and also have strips long enough to tie with no straw showing from underneath. When I had my measurement (my finger pinching where the place was I needed to cut) I cut the strip and it turned out to be about 16 inches wide. Of course, it'll all depend on your wreath and how long you want your strips to be. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9_qje7mtxewDoWyK1YACbMfBghSTicn9ZJ1k78F0Egd2vcyTnodDiYDCJf2Z1i6B_fckBU7P2pgh1XI41adFW26-xzhHUneXmD56R4XilYaBIaf5UkgF2AXBLUE1BCxuDnreL/s1600/IMG_4136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9_qje7mtxewDoWyK1YACbMfBghSTicn9ZJ1k78F0Egd2vcyTnodDiYDCJf2Z1i6B_fckBU7P2pgh1XI41adFW26-xzhHUneXmD56R4XilYaBIaf5UkgF2AXBLUE1BCxuDnreL/s640/IMG_4136.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Like the leftover polish on my thumb? I was waiting to meet with someone and nervously peeled/scraped the polish off all my nails but I was called in before I got to my thumb. I know, nice.<br />
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I took the wide strip I had just cut and folded it longways, and then
folded it again longways. The second fold was just so I could keep all
the little strips even when I cut them. I cut up to a couple inches from
the fold and when I was done, I had this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTq_koNvyRJlDD-BESo7xpvm-OxBX8BYgjxjOVQIWeRKxVe3shgRVVlGb2fAgCnP9jMaR4i7-dwrXt7oL0zYWRIQYGUBfK-mlIIK9qjlOu5TShnGjDxFGkZrAtWqSfb1n3kVK/s1600/IMG_4144.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTq_koNvyRJlDD-BESo7xpvm-OxBX8BYgjxjOVQIWeRKxVe3shgRVVlGb2fAgCnP9jMaR4i7-dwrXt7oL0zYWRIQYGUBfK-mlIIK9qjlOu5TShnGjDxFGkZrAtWqSfb1n3kVK/s640/IMG_4144.JPG" width="426" /></a></div>
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Now starts the mindless part because over the next hour or so you're going to be tying knots. Knot after knot after knot. And you're going to tie two knots. So, I guess that's technically a double knot. At first, I was doing right over left and then right over left for the two knots and then moving on to the next one. Then I noticed all my ties were facing the same direction so I realized I needed to mix it up. After that, I did right over left and then left over right and then switched it for the next one. This made it look pretty random with just a little fluffing needed at the end.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn7pkfHQONyJ4tFc2DblhHzh2FjX2-I4nGTX20teQFWQf2lkK-IbGPNJv2IesmTHjG7i-1jIGC2eHm9p0L6FHdUYY9wCBlOjS6_MyPkUQr4eGFvKjuP5n4h7ZlLKppecVdavJX/s1600/IMG_4132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn7pkfHQONyJ4tFc2DblhHzh2FjX2-I4nGTX20teQFWQf2lkK-IbGPNJv2IesmTHjG7i-1jIGC2eHm9p0L6FHdUYY9wCBlOjS6_MyPkUQr4eGFvKjuP5n4h7ZlLKppecVdavJX/s640/IMG_4132.JPG" width="426" /></a></div>
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The strip in the picture above wasn't quite long enough to go around the entire wreath, so I just cut another piece and started wrapping it where the other ended. Since the fabric on the back is a little bunchy and the knots in the front cover so much, you can't really even tell that two pieces were used.<br />
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After all the knots were tied and fluffed, I noticed that I didn't like the squared off ends of the knot strips. This started the second tedious task of my night. I went around and rounded off all the square knot strips. Yes, there were a lot. But I wanted it to look a certain way and the way it was just wasn't doing it for me. I took a picture halfway through my trimming so you could see the difference. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIvVG_M6FddpdTe0y63DhZZn1AmJ4cVAgM-WYo-WXvsbZ-89eisJzCrsyxHDEoKy_4jqcYZ55aLgFEW8xvmAJvxRuIiSqsb73VO6WxWni_HLjGpdqCjVExeLxrgc529j1esHi/s1600/IMG_4153.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIvVG_M6FddpdTe0y63DhZZn1AmJ4cVAgM-WYo-WXvsbZ-89eisJzCrsyxHDEoKy_4jqcYZ55aLgFEW8xvmAJvxRuIiSqsb73VO6WxWni_HLjGpdqCjVExeLxrgc529j1esHi/s640/IMG_4153.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Now all I had to do was cut a bunch of pom-poms off the trim and hot glue them on. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdfIMLMv7NqunfDiCkf549iIh7njW1vfay3_HPdccRVcZk3T4lkFUYIgr6UMYX44iRQNyNkfvaoZB1OESiK4rFb3ib-KC00ugVV3iuzF58sAlKmaalLn8R25OqXPm8szvY2jLZ/s1600/IMG_4146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdfIMLMv7NqunfDiCkf549iIh7njW1vfay3_HPdccRVcZk3T4lkFUYIgr6UMYX44iRQNyNkfvaoZB1OESiK4rFb3ib-KC00ugVV3iuzF58sAlKmaalLn8R25OqXPm8szvY2jLZ/s640/IMG_4146.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaSvqDPeICQTU-7-MK-H32zdY7pI3agt1jpr146L6Sy4_XbmpASfCCy7Qix6FQt1rVh0aeBlEOMfpWjwtwEvg9n151-mzPU5aSuhwGmxNexzScNwXGxdiChwWBiP9LnRmB4Xcl/s1600/IMG_4150.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaSvqDPeICQTU-7-MK-H32zdY7pI3agt1jpr146L6Sy4_XbmpASfCCy7Qix6FQt1rVh0aeBlEOMfpWjwtwEvg9n151-mzPU5aSuhwGmxNexzScNwXGxdiChwWBiP9LnRmB4Xcl/s640/IMG_4150.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizK3yKCYgiLyJEkujiyxjJiWANmv9SmEzVC28YaE3WzQk0gLQAPDsgPRlkY5JOLjAjH1t2AL1W7lbITLKbaJ92MZQP5KBeEShoW7B6ldlXviKCXUR5jXL163GbKS2pkUKVbpwS/s1600/IMG_4184.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizK3yKCYgiLyJEkujiyxjJiWANmv9SmEzVC28YaE3WzQk0gLQAPDsgPRlkY5JOLjAjH1t2AL1W7lbITLKbaJ92MZQP5KBeEShoW7B6ldlXviKCXUR5jXL163GbKS2pkUKVbpwS/s640/IMG_4184.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
And voila, there you have it. A wreath that bears some resemblance to the over-priced, out of stock, West Elm tree skirt from Christmas 2011.<br />
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Linking to these sites...<br />
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<a href="http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2012/12/christmas-craft-linky-party.html" target="_blank">Shanty 2 Chic</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.attagirlsays.com/2012/12/11/linky-party-better-late-than-never-christmas-inspirations-now-live/" target="_blank">Atta Girl Says</a><br />
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<script src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<a href="http://www.beforemeetsafterblog.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Holiday" border="0" src="http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee462/creativeindex/bloggraphics/before-meets-after/craftyxmas2012.jpg" /></a>
<a href="http://www.houseofhepworths.com/"><img alt="HookingupwithHoH" src="http://www.houseofhepworths.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/HookinupwithHoHnew2.png" /></a>
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<div align="center">
<a href="http://diyshowoff.com/" target="_blank" title="DIY Show Off "><img alt="DIY Show Off " src="http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac195/Roeshel/nest2.jpg" style="border: none;" /></a></div>
pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-38170197242578424172012-08-02T09:29:00.001-05:002012-08-02T09:29:17.263-05:00Overheard this morningAutie had her friend Azo spend the night last night and this morning, when I woke up, they were hard at work on a project.<br />
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Me: What are you guys workin' on?<br />
Azo: Umm, we're making cards to hand out to people. We're going to walk around the block and when we see people, we're going to give them a card and ask them if they want to donate food to the homeless.<br />
Me: Oh, well what are you gonna do with all that food? <br />
Autie: Well, we're going to look for some homeless people. Then if we don't find any, we're gonna eat the food.pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-9332042167235284412012-06-14T09:57:00.000-05:002012-06-14T09:59:46.986-05:00William Morris Thursday - A little of this and a little of that<br />
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<a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/06/purchase-an-upright-piano/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/WM-pink-and-gray-Rev33.jpg" /></a></div>
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I just couldn't write another WM post with 'random' in the title so I switched it up a bit. Even though it's really more of the same thing.<br />
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I feel like I've been hit with an avalanche of projects ever since I pulled that one out from the bottom of the pile. Kind of like that orange that looks so perfect you have to have it. Then all the rest come tumbling down after it. Now that school is out, and since I'm the teacher that's important, I have the freedom to flit from one project to the other without the pressure of finishing and cleaning up so we have the space to do school. That's also my number one problem right now. Too much free time with no schedule. My house looks like a crafter's disaster. Here's a sampling of what I've been working on the past two weeks...<br />
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Switched out my dining room light fixture from this<br />
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to this. Ah, much better. I'm still not sure it'll stay white and I don't know what to do with the dingy, bland cord, but it's an overall improvement. I'll also mention that projects like this and <a href="http://www.pamelotta.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-turn-on-your-husband-without.html" target="_blank">this</a> can sometimes be good for your marriage. ;)<br />
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Took a couple of thrift store lamps, spray painted them white, added semi-homemade shades and called it a day.<br />
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Made a hanging planter out of an old colander I got at the ReStore for a dollar and planted some Purslane in it. Speaking of edible weeds, have you ever tried Purslane? It's a little bit tangy and spicy and my husband loves it so much that he grabs a sprig and eats it every time he walks past it. I'll post a little toot on how I did it later. Until then, here's the finished product hanging on the porch.<br />
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And, to be fair, I thought I'd include a hair-brained idea I had and followed through with and promptly deemed a failure. I bet you're just dying to hear about this one.<br />
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Here we have a shirt that I bought at Goodwill for $cheap.99. I love it. Or should I say, I <i>loved</i> it. It's Ann Taylor Loft and it's light and soft and I love the colors in it. (You'd probably agree with me if I hadn't taken a picture of it like it's a slipcover for my couch.) Then I wore it a few times and spilled stuff on it. Because ladies, that's what I do. I'm not a careful eater and I'm not gentle on clothes. I don't usually follow the standard rules of laundry either, so I ruin a lot of stuff accidentally. That's also why I try not to borrow things. But that's another story for another time.<br />
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Some of the stains I wouldn't really even consider stains. They're more like mystery spots. Sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't. (Maybe what I need is an exorcist) My point is that it wasn't bad enough to just throw the shirt in the giveaway pile, but it was getting a little too dingy for me to feel comfortable wearing. I once dyed a white skirt of my daughter's blue because I couldn't get a stain out but didn't want to part with it. It worked beautifully so I decided to try a similar measure on the shirt. I didn't want to go with blue, which is the color dye I already had on hand, and I didn't want to wait because I'm not good at that. I was in the kitchen when I noticed my coffee pot sitting there, with about 3 cups of coffee in it from that morning. The next thing I knew, I was stuffing the shirt into a big metal bowl and pouring the coffee over it. This is what I ended up with. And I liked it.<br />
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Then I went and washed it. That's what you do after you dye something, right? Well, apparently my laundry detergent can't remove mystery stains, but it has no problem removing coffee stains. The shirt came out the same dingy white it was before except for one small area. Actually two areas. The coffee and subsequent washing somehow made sweat stains that were practically invisible before this experiment bright yellow. So now I have a dingy white shirt with bright yellow stains in the arm pits. Nice.<br />
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Maybe I'll try again and let the coffee sit longer or maybe there's something that I can use to 'set' the stain before I wash it. Anyway, I'm not quite ready to let the shirt go. I'll keep you updated. I know this is riveting subject matter and I don't want to leave you hanging. Like the shirt. You know, hanging. Thanks, I'll be here all week.<br />
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And here's a peek into what I'm working on for next week. It involves using my newly acquired WM skills to make some money. Hopefully.<br />
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<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-53025491856971047612012-05-24T09:54:00.000-05:002012-05-24T09:54:16.317-05:00William Morris Thursday - random projects<br />
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Last Thursday, my incredibly sweet friend, Brenda, came over to help me work on my couch project. We had already gone shopping for our supplies the week before so we were ready to start laying and cutting fabric. It was kind of scary when we made the first cut, but after that, I kept reminding myself that I wanted the pieces to look comfortable and a little slouchy. I'm positive whatever they end up being they'll be slouchy.<br />
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We got one couch cut out and pinned and we were out of time. Yesterday, she came over and we got the other couch cut out and pinned and started to work on the piping. Some of my friends couldn't believe I was actually going to go to the trouble of making piping, but even though I want it slouchy, I don't want it sloppy.<br />
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Both Brenda and I have sewing machines, but we decided to use hers because she's already familiar with it. Since I haven't, ahem, ever used mine, we didn't want to waste time learning how to use my particular machine. I've gotta tell you, sitting at that sewing machine felt really good. If I believed in past lives, I'd be convinced I was a seamstress in mine. We used a method we found on YouTube for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDPlgSCLDMM" target="_blank">making the strips</a> for the piping and then we pinned and sewed until it was done. <br />
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After spending a couple of hours at the sewing machine, I was pretty proud of my accomplishment. My husband came home and I showed him the great pile of piping I had created and we had this conversation:<br />
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Me: Look at all this piping I made this afternoon. Can you believe it?<br />
Him: Yeah, that's great.<br />
Me: I don't think you're seeing what I actually did here. I sewed all. this. piping. This here. I sewed<br />
it. On that machine over there. I sew! <br />
Him: What I'm wondering is, do you cook?<br />
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So, we've covered two couches, pinned them and made half the piping we need. All we need to do is sew the couch covers, make the covers for the cushions and make and sew on the skirt. Goodness, this is an involved project!<br />
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In between the sewing and pinning, I made a sign for my fireplace mantle and covered some lamp shades with sheet material for the girl's room.<br />
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P.S. I made the sign out of wood from an old pallet that's been trashing up our backyard for at least a year. The lampshades were half off at Hancock's. The lamps came from the dollar store and I spray painted them white.<br />
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I'm linking up with Jules' <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2011/09/unstyled-life-33/" target="_blank">William Morris project</a>. More <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/05/organizing-pictures/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-60662427719273804512012-05-17T10:33:00.001-05:002012-05-17T10:33:32.192-05:00William Morris Thursday - my children<br />
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Even though I start little organization projects every day, projects that don't always get finished, I don't always feel like I have enough to share when it comes time to link up with <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/05/the-home-office/" target="_blank">Jules' William Morris project</a> every Thursday. Although this week isn't any different, I thought I'd share something I started that I'm determined to finish. In fact, my sanity depends on it.<br />
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I homeschool my 3 youngest children (all girls) and because they are home with me all. day. every. day. we're all going a little stir crazy waiting for summer to begin. I have said from the beginning that in addition to the regular schooling they'd be getting, I would teach them home skills, too. I don't want my girls to leave my house not knowing how to take care of themselves or their homes. At different times throughout the year, I've started some sort of chore chart system but <strike>for one reason or another</strike> because of my lack of discipline it wouldn't stick. Then I realized something. While I've been putting into practice the William Morris quote, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." in the physical rooms of my house, I hadn't thought of applying it to my children. While they have always been and will continue to be a thing of beauty in my eyes, they have not started being, how shall I put it, "useful."<br />
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I'm crazy about them, but they're 6, 8 and 10 and they haven't ever done much in the way of regular chores. I go on occasional rants and give them things to do as consequences or follow them around reminding them of things they should be doing, but there hasn't been any system set up so they could learn to own their work and feel good about contributing. <br />
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Yesterday, I came up with all the chores I want them to be able to do on their own after some training, and put the steps in a list with a place to check them off as they're completed. I put those lists in plastic sleeves and put them in a binder. I haven't figured out yet how the specific chores will be assigned or how often, etc. but getting the binder done has already made me feel like this is a do-able thing. And of course, once they've mastered the chores, the lists will need to be altered and probably more complex chores added. Of course that's a problem I look forward to. ;)<br />
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Just this morning, my self-motivated daughter asked if she could wash the dishes. She already had the binder opened up to the dish washing page and was ready to go. I just gave her a little direction to get started and she ran with it.<br />
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On the project front, later today, my friend and I will get started using this:</div>
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To turn this:</div>
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Into this:</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lazygirlslipcovers/4543848284/" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr>
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Hopefully next week I'll have something to share!<br />
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Linking up with <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/" target="_blank">Jules' at Pancakes and French Fries. </a><br />
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<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-47286995176566442182012-04-20T05:00:00.000-05:002012-04-20T05:00:01.372-05:00My activistAs you may have heard, tonight is the big <a href="http://www.kony2012.com/#coverthenight" target="_blank">"cover the night"</a> night for the <a href="http://www.kony2012.com/" target="_blank">KONY 2012</a> campaign. If you're not familiar, you can take a look at this video. It'll take you 30 minutes to watch it, but you won't realize it while you're watching it. It's very well done and compelling.<br />
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I'm not sure what all they've discussed at my son's school, but he came home yesterday saying he needed a red shirt to wear on Friday. And not only that, he wanted his shirt to have the KONY 2012 logo on it. I asked him if he knew what KONY 2012 was all about and he said they had watched the video and he thought it was a cool thing they were doing. So we went to Goodwill for a red shirt (hooray for $2 t-shirts), printed out the logo, made a stencil and painted the logo on the shirt. <br />
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They ended up using black spray paint because it was the easiest and fastest way to do it. I made them go outside for that part.<br />
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My little activist. I'm so proud. Actually, there's nothing little about him. ;)pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-32829550467439790942012-04-19T10:19:00.001-05:002012-04-26T08:08:42.914-05:00William Morris Thursday - repainting furniture<br />
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I don't have much to report this week as I've taken a little bit of a break from the purging and organizing. I have a whole car load of stuff that needs to go to either goodwill, the consignment store or the recycling center, but we're conserving gas right now so I'm not making many trips into town.<br />
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This past weekend, I repainted a chest of drawers for my son's room and another one for the girls' room.<br />
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The chest from my son's room was a garage sale find from when we moved into our house. It was painted some other color and I covered it in a thick coat of glossy black paint to go in his camouflage-themed room. It probably wasn't the best choice, but I was just trying to get everyone moved in and it was the easiest thing to do at the moment. My son wanted me to paint it red so I took the leftover red from his walls and whipped up a batch of chalk paint. After painting two coats, I didn't like the way it was looking. You could still see the black underneath the red and it kind of reminded me of the glazing phase of the 60's that you see on lots of thrift store furniture. So I just added another coat and that did it.<br />
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When it came time to put the drawers in, I realized that it was kind of plain and since this was a piece for my son's room and not many people would see it, I decided to experiment. I'll blame <a href="http://pinterest.com/pamelotta/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> for that.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://blessednest05.blogspot.com/2012/03/ombre.html" target="_blank">source</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.soderbergagentur.com/photographers/magnus-anesund/#lador" target="_blank">source</a></td></tr>
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So I took the two grays that I had painted on the walls and mixed in a
little black until I got 4 shades of gray for the drawers. They aren't a
perfect progression from light to dark, but I wasn't going to mess with
perfection on this one. I think it turned out nice and my boy likes it,
too.<br />
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My next project was to paint the girls' dresser a color that would finally match their room. It went from this...<br />
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I made some chalk paint out of the leftover paint from the nightstands in there and sealed it with a dark furniture paste. I just need to find some old mismatched pulls for the drawers and it'll be done.<br />
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And that's what I did this week.<br />
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Linking to Jules' William Morris project. You can join in <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/04/mom-car/" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
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</div>pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-15504180483001435672012-04-12T11:04:00.000-05:002012-04-12T11:08:26.151-05:00William Morris Thursday - my boy's room<br />
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While reading through my blogroll this morning, I noticed <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/04/how-to-organize-a-bottom-freezer/" target="_blank">Jules did a post on cleaning out her bottom freezer drawer</a>. That's interesting, I thought. She usually saves that kind of stuff for Thursday. And then it hit me that today is Thursday. Whoops. Totally forgot about my William Morris project post and I actually have something to share.<br />
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For weeks I've been telling my 13 year old son that I'd repaint his bedroom. I painted it an army green to go with all of his military stuff when we built the house 7 years ago. Since then, my boy has really given the room a work out. There were scuff marks, nail holes and lots of places where the paint has peeled off from all the rough playing he's done in there. ;) Since he's moved out of the rough playing phase of his life (sniff, sniff) he's wanted a more mature color palette and clean lines to match his neat freak personality. It's taken every ounce of self control for him to not just grab a brush and some paint and take care of the problem for himself. So, with a four day Easter weekend to take advantage of, I finally stepped up and did what I promised. <br />
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My pictures this week leave a lot to be desired, but you'll get the gist.<br />
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The comforter set I got him has a red, black and gray design on it. I took his pillow sham to Lowe's and bought two different shades of gray and a quart of red that matched his bedding. I don't have any full shots of the room because his window doesn't have any blinds on it so they're always blown out.<br />
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When I asked my son what color he wanted his room to be, he requested red. I told him red was out of the question, but suggested painting the lower portion dark gray and the upper portion light gray with a red stripe around the middle. He shrugged his shoulders which, I think, means 'whatever' in teen speak.<br />
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I borrowed my friends laser level to paint a wide red stripe around the room and then I used it to tape over the red stripe. Then all I had to do was paint the bottom part up to the tape and paint the upper part down to the tape. When I removed the tape, I had a red stripe around the room!<br />
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He likes it and is in the process of reorganizing the whole thing. I still have to paint his dresser and nightstand and find a cool table for his tv and game system. He also requested a couch and coffee table so he can relax and a mini fridge, washer and dryer for his closet. I told him it was his bedroom, not a bachelor pad.<br />
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On an emotional note, I will admit that I started crying no less than 3 times while doing this project at the thought of my little boy growing up. So if someone who has an older than 13 year old boy will go ahead and tell me that it gets easier, I'd appreciate it. So far, he's turned down our offers of large amounts of cash money to stop growing. Can't say we didn't try. <br />
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My next project will be to paint the girls room. I've started by removing a full trash bag full of trash and 2 trash bags full of stuff out of there and moving their dresser onto the porch to paint this weekend. I did find time to redo the bulletin board I got for their room. It was a freebie in the last hour of the last day of a garage sale I went to. I painted the edge a color that matches their room and adhered a vintage sheet to the surface with spray mount. No pictures of that process. I'm getting a little tired of tutorials. My own, that is.<br />
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That's it. I'm finding that since starting this project with all the other folks participating, I always have a project in the works. The only thing keeping me from doing more is the time constraint. I'm sure when summer starts, I'll be able to step it up. <br />
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I'm linking up to <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/04/how-to-organize-a-bottom-freezer/" target="_blank">Jules' William Morris project</a>.pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-72786713766970654282012-04-05T08:42:00.000-05:002012-04-12T11:07:02.215-05:00William Morris Thursday - the spice cabinet<br />
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<a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2011/09/unstyled-life-33/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/WM-pink-and-gray-Rev33.jpg" /></a></div>
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From the looks of this blog over the last few months, you'd think it was dedicated exclusively to <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2011/09/unstyled-life-33/" target="_blank">William Morris</a>. But I haven't had the energy to do much else lately. I did spend 2 hours on a really great blog post last Sunday and set it to post the following morning, only to find that Blogger had deleted everything but the title and the labels. I didn't have the energy to redo it.<br />
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Yesterday, I reached into my spice cabinet and it hit me. I realized I hadn't cleaned the thing out in all the 7 years I've lived in this house. I also realized that while lots of space can be a great blessing, it can also become a curse. When you have enough space in a cabinet to chuck things into it for 7 years with very little being removed, that's a curse.<br />
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I didn't waste any time deciding if I had the time to do this project, I just started. And after successfully cleaning and organizing my pantry, I knew this was the next natural step.<br />
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This is my great blessing of a spice cabinet, complete with lazy Susan.
However, this setup, over the years, has created one seriously lazy Pam.
I didn't include pictures of all the things that have fallen over the
edge and into unreachable spaces back there. <br />
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When I got it all out onto my counter top, I was amazed that it all came from one cabinet.<br />
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My next move was to divide the keep from the toss. I know it looks like I was liberal with the keep pile, but there were several repeated items that needed consolidating.<br />
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After the consolidation process, I decided that I wanted to transfer a lot of the spices I use frequently to glass jars. Luckily, the hoarder voice in me has been telling me to save jars for the past year so I had a good stash of all shapes and sizes and nearly everything ended up in one.<br />
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What was left was a bunch of empty glass and plastic bottles ready to be recycled. But what about all those lids? I hated to throw them all away, but after reading this <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92510162" target="_blank">article<span id="goog_1852393455"></span><span id="goog_1852393456"></span></a>, I realized my only choice was to toss them.<br />
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Next, I sprayed everything in the cabinet down and loaded up my newly labeled spice containers in a loosely organized-by-category fashion.<br />
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There. That's much better.<br />
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<br />
I'm linking up with <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/04/plants-always/" target="_blank">Jules' William Morris project</a>,<br />
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<a href="http://organizeyourstuffnow.com/wordpress/home-decor-organizing-link-party-46" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://organizeyourstuffnow.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/SS8527001.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-43135059595604242482012-03-29T11:48:00.001-05:002012-03-29T11:48:10.527-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2011/09/unstyled-life-33/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/WM-pink-and-gray-Rev33.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Last week, while reading <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/03/potatoes-and-onions/" target="_blank">Jules' WM post</a>,
I was reminded how much I need to clean out my pantry. As if standing
at the threshold and leaning over as far as I can to reach things on
shelves because I literally could not see the floor wasn't enough. What a
mess.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqo8howjPGKwiEZ19ycfnsmmgX7Qmm_WXsWhlOb9KxnMTy-MkRH3vzabrSXBq7-CaKiQb1GZc2bJq_rL4mTWb3VukYAVqpllI_6jk2QrAYVwveDyrAmaB0XTSoWvx5VEAmtPV/s1600/IMG_1296.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqo8howjPGKwiEZ19ycfnsmmgX7Qmm_WXsWhlOb9KxnMTy-MkRH3vzabrSXBq7-CaKiQb1GZc2bJq_rL4mTWb3VukYAVqpllI_6jk2QrAYVwveDyrAmaB0XTSoWvx5VEAmtPV/s640/IMG_1296.JPG" width="640" /></a> <br />
That was actually the second-to-the-last straw. The last straw was going to the grocery store, loading the back of my suburban with 2 weeks (maybe) worth of groceries and realizing when I brought it all in the house that I had no place to put it. <br />
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So on the counter they went and on to work I went. I started by pulling
everything out. I couldn't do this all at once because I really had no
place to put it all so I did it one shelf at a time.Pull everything off. Clean with a rag. Sort the keep from the toss. Decide on a permanent spot for the stuff I keep. Repeat.<br />
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I tried to come up with a system of sorting and organizing so it
would be easy for anyone to find something in my pantry. This wasn't too
hard, except for a few things that always fall into the random
category. I'm not quite finished yet, as I would like to be able to
store the kids drawing and coloring supplies in there. Actually, the
jury's still out on that one. When I organize the school room, they
might better fit in there. Sheesh. Why does every project I do lead to
another, larger job?<br />
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Some things I found while cleaning out my pantry:<br />
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Empty liquor bottles. Well, almost empty. There was one bottle of tequila that had enough for one shot in the bottom. One of my pet peeves is when the person who uses the last of something puts the now empty container back where they got it. It's empty. It's useless to the next person. Throw it away.<br />
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I'm a little embarrassed about this one. I think I bought this whole bag of corn flour for one recipe that called for a tablespoon. Then I stuck it up on a high shelf and forgot about it. Apparently, I have been feeding and housing a city of weevils or something for who knows how long. Cleaning that up gave me the heebies.<br />
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This is the light fixture in my pantry. It fell from the ceiling and has been dangling by its wires since the first year we lived in our house. That was 7 years ago. It's on Mr. Park's list.<br /><br />
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This is mid-way through the project.<br /><br />
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Yes, the empty liquor bottles are still there. I need to put them in my glass recycling basket but there isn't room. Maybe that's why they were up there to begin with.<br /><br />
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Look! It's the floor! I can walk in there and spin around if I want. There are now some empty shelves, but I think once I get the other areas of my kitchen organized, I might need them. If not, I'm okay with empty shelves. I think my need to fill empty spaces with stuff if starting to wane.<br />
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I'm linking up with Jules' <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/03/odds-and-ends-in-the-kitchen/" target="_blank">William Morris Project</a>.<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-47402839675492378342012-03-28T18:11:00.000-05:002012-03-28T18:11:12.226-05:00My baby girl is 10<span id="goog_193069469"></span><span id="goog_193069470"></span><br />
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She was born 3 1/2 years after my first born son. In those 3 1/2 years, I would have 2 miscarriages. I remember sitting in the living room of our 100 year old farm house crying and asking Elliott if this was it. What if I can't have anymore? He just held me and told me everything would be all right and we'd cross that bridge if we get to it. Then she came along. A ray of sunshine in the early morning. She was born at 6:45 am and Elliott has called her his sunshine ever since. She's a lot like Elliott's great aunt 'Iwie' who was a spitfire until the day she died at 92. She's developing quite the sense of humor and loves a good practical joke. Yep, she's a tween now, I guess. I asked her if she knew what that word meant and she couldn't really tell me. Just that she was proud to be one.<br />
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She mentioned that her favorite food was 'Chinese' and I just happened to have made it last night so I thought I'd share the recipe, if you can call it that. I first learned of this dish when I married into my husband's family. At that time, it was just hamburger meat, green beans, celery and spaghetti topped with soy sauce and it was called 'Chinese' food. I'll always refer to it with quotes because the only thing Chinese about it is the soy sauce. I've added more veggies over the years and it's become a favorite of the kids.<br />
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Brown a pound or two of ground beef in a skillet. Set aside.</div>
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Next, you're going to take whatever vegetables you like or that your family will eat or anything that looks like it's going bad in your icebox, and chop it up. You might need to saute it in batches, depending on how big your skillet is and how much stuff you end up with. I started with onions, celery and bell peppers. Then I continued with cabbage and broccoli. I let them brown a little in some spots and then I added some soy sauce because the broccoli and cabbage don't really sweat that much when you saute them and the extra moisture helps soften them.<br />
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Then I added some shredded carrots and let them cook until semi-soft.</div>
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Here it is. All mixed together in a bowl. Oh, yeah, don't forget to boil some spaghetti while you're doing all that other stuff. It's served over spaghetti. Sounds really oriental, doesn't it? Believe me, I've tried to convert my family to rice, quinoa, soba noodles, anything but spaghetti. They never go for it. They always complain and ask where the spaghetti is. I give up. <br />
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So there you have it. Anna's favorite meal. 'Chinese' food. And there's mine without all those silly, unnecessary carbs. ;)pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-19790543373800945672012-03-22T11:40:00.000-05:002012-03-28T10:54:29.418-05:00William Morris Thursday - the living room<div style="text-align: center;">
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I don't even know where to begin this week because it's been so long since I've posted. Last Thursday, my house was a turned-inside-out mess. It was our spring break and I had a list of things I wanted to get done. Two of which were nonnegotiable. Along with catching up on laundry and pulling down the summer clothes from the attic, I was determined to paint my living room and move that dang crate/coffee table into the space no matter what condition it was in. I have to warn you, this post is extremely lengthy and has a ton of pictures. It won't hurt my feelings if you skim. Promise.<br />
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Here's what I accomplished in the past two weeks:<br />
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<b>1</b>. I <i>finally</i> decided on a paint color. And I have my husband to thank for helping me decide. I swear, if he hadn't gone with me to Lowe's, I'd still be standing there in front of all those color swatches, drool running down my chin. The middle one is the one we chose.<br />
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Since it was spring break, and I had all week to work on whatever I wanted, I decided to get the painting out of the way on Monday. My helpful friend, Brenda came over to help and we knocked the whole thing out in 3 hours.<br />
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<b>2</b>. With the painting so quickly out of the way, and my entertainment center in the middle of the room, I decided to do something I hadn't planned on doing just yet. I had been wanting to paint the entertainment center, but wasn't sure what I'd be getting myself into. My husband has always suggested I sell the thing and use the money to get something I liked more. It was, after all, an expensive purchase and he just couldn't stomach the thought of me slapping paint on it. He did relent, though, and I went ahead with my plan. ;)<br />
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I started by researching this chalk paint that everyone is raving about these days. I read all about the Annie Sloan chalk paint and how everyone falls in love with it the first time they use it and vow to use nothing else their entire DIY lives. And I was just about to climb on the band wagon when I saw the price tag - $38 for a quart. Ouch. Plus, I'd have to wait. Wait, I tell you, for the stuff to be shipped to my house because it's not sold everywhere. When I get ready to do something, I don't want to wait. I wanted to start on my project in the next few hours. So I scoured the web looking for an alternative and I hit the jackpot.<br />
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I am apparently not the only one who's not willing to spend $38 on one quart of paint and wait for it. I followed this <a href="http://www.lizmarieblog.com/2011/10/homemade-chalk-paint/" target="_blank">blogger's</a> advice and made my own.<br />
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I wanted to bring out the color of my stone fireplace mantel, so I took a
leftover piece we had in the rock pile outside. I was hoping the 'oops'
shelf at Lowe's would have something I could use and sure enough, they
did. I got a gallon of good paint in a color that was close for $8. The
container of grout I got was $5. That's a far cry from $38/quart!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZbrHEUl7A5tA45x7jcIpkFr1cFS4qbp1mlDe-_PliHSAwkRBQxIzPi7Q6mr-sclm4BTVLBBR6rgh-46aBolwRsTuJfxBx_5bcoNFF0h_vgqzJLLurEjFhbLsB54K1v5-9waT/s1600/IMG_1072.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZbrHEUl7A5tA45x7jcIpkFr1cFS4qbp1mlDe-_PliHSAwkRBQxIzPi7Q6mr-sclm4BTVLBBR6rgh-46aBolwRsTuJfxBx_5bcoNFF0h_vgqzJLLurEjFhbLsB54K1v5-9waT/s320/IMG_1072.jpg" width="239" /></a><br />
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I took all the doors and hardware off and jumped right in. It really does work as well as they say. I didn't sand or prime beforehand, I just painted it in 2 coats, sanded the rough spots and sealed it with furniture paste. Miss Mustard Seed has an excellent tutorial about it <a href="http://missmustardseed.com/2011/03/waxes-101/" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
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<b>3</b>. Of course, you know that when you pull out a large piece of furniture that has held lots of stuff, you have to remove all that stuff and clean the inside of the piece. This was not a project I was looking forward to, so I did it half way and haven't done anything else since.<br />
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The stuff in the foreground is the stuff I got rid of. Everything else is keep and the grocery sack is filled with empty cd holders and scratched dvd's that I pitched. The stereo components and all related wires are in a laundry basket in the dining room. The tv is shoved up against the wall in the entry way. I'm so close to just pushing it out the door a la <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF9GJOqIF6c" target="_blank">Poltergeist</a>. <br />
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<b>4</b>. I went to an antiques store known for having lots of old hardware and bought 3 hinges for the crate/coffee table and on one of the few sunny days we had last week, my husband installed them and the caster wheels. <br />
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Then, he did something that I hadn't thought of because I don't think of such things. He found an old leather belt and used it as a stay to keep the door from falling back too far and bending the hinges the wrong way. He's sharp like that.<br />
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Here's the completed crate.<br />
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I'm still not sure about color or stain. I really just wanted to get it into the space and live with it for a while first and maybe later I'll have a better idea what to do. Or I'll just leave it that way forever.<br />
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<b>5</b>. I left a few piles of clothes that I had purged laying around and I guess this is what happens when you walk away from them for a few weeks. They multiply into 7 bags! 6 of those bags will be going out the door and one will go into the attic for storage until the season changes again.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigdLLmQPlbki29iTZy0YekBXcD6G3Nzk0gX2X3X5GvQcczuJAatPoBZxnaE2wvhDdcfmWGlGTvzJl4Qmi93SLyyW6Ep6ajWWwETMDfG9FgvqyhiKLOVqmeIRTq18SaB4luZpwQ/s1600/IMG_1166.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigdLLmQPlbki29iTZy0YekBXcD6G3Nzk0gX2X3X5GvQcczuJAatPoBZxnaE2wvhDdcfmWGlGTvzJl4Qmi93SLyyW6Ep6ajWWwETMDfG9FgvqyhiKLOVqmeIRTq18SaB4luZpwQ/s640/IMG_1166.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Whew! Let's recap with some before and after shots.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Before:</b></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT6qyCFeF85hjvy7TD7dFhGS9NtUI0vBE-4G5rIb0-EdPw-j1eOpJnf5-RGu_EK_w9UXnRk8uaPP_OTJA3Ev0EoCACPLy5M25MsN__y8fyBAP2B-RBOec3jz-KYF99wE9QZG7Y/s1600/west+wall.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT6qyCFeF85hjvy7TD7dFhGS9NtUI0vBE-4G5rIb0-EdPw-j1eOpJnf5-RGu_EK_w9UXnRk8uaPP_OTJA3Ev0EoCACPLy5M25MsN__y8fyBAP2B-RBOec3jz-KYF99wE9QZG7Y/s640/west+wall.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>After:</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4dw9Wpb9tM6k-Qs2rO52x7VANo1QzdHoZTKC0eVFfuwgAqSxgbqIazKeqxc2N6vYvo2nHovm9medLaBDUmtY3hKXK-ps0X7PRsssqPfUQ4059sgTK9Pu0-uV3Cu2syoNgq8D/s1600/IMG_1175.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4dw9Wpb9tM6k-Qs2rO52x7VANo1QzdHoZTKC0eVFfuwgAqSxgbqIazKeqxc2N6vYvo2nHovm9medLaBDUmtY3hKXK-ps0X7PRsssqPfUQ4059sgTK9Pu0-uV3Cu2syoNgq8D/s640/IMG_1175.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Before:</b></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTncYtdKzP3d9ZlfTFGOCli7__O1hIjJd1pdVF_9or5aOiD79w2T1mLxfuLwppumogtvXx-NUW91A4_S_Hq4gCpWk71rumvWHULo2z_pX668eI5K7-ayRveJ5ICveXoKK0FDE1/s1600/view+from+kitchen.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTncYtdKzP3d9ZlfTFGOCli7__O1hIjJd1pdVF_9or5aOiD79w2T1mLxfuLwppumogtvXx-NUW91A4_S_Hq4gCpWk71rumvWHULo2z_pX668eI5K7-ayRveJ5ICveXoKK0FDE1/s640/view+from+kitchen.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>After:</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwZxPLlLre81Qan2khJ329J3r3CVBqJoS-1goBn_mBXW3CR4NwXAaDZfkcyU9GEnCtxhUJp5S9M-FMK3qlRhtV0Q_Bx_WbEKMzf1jZLKoUFLLWu8PRhPc0KW7uxrj-V9Ku12Xq/s1600/IMG_1178.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwZxPLlLre81Qan2khJ329J3r3CVBqJoS-1goBn_mBXW3CR4NwXAaDZfkcyU9GEnCtxhUJp5S9M-FMK3qlRhtV0Q_Bx_WbEKMzf1jZLKoUFLLWu8PRhPc0KW7uxrj-V9Ku12Xq/s640/IMG_1178.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Before:</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJun84bKyZ1uVJzt078fyErdNPHzQgj9HX82DM6QgtqMrTfxnGEaO9OwpDl-rOcvVsfZHJQiywgTUfjElNKT2lYOs9L4QjxcSzdZZMrk1-3h-KEB8xv7hHbXkJh_w1y7VctcEz/s1600/IMG_2288.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJun84bKyZ1uVJzt078fyErdNPHzQgj9HX82DM6QgtqMrTfxnGEaO9OwpDl-rOcvVsfZHJQiywgTUfjElNKT2lYOs9L4QjxcSzdZZMrk1-3h-KEB8xv7hHbXkJh_w1y7VctcEz/s640/IMG_2288.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>After:</b></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5r7UQdFGG3Kolwmv7OQWrtIoHs38cecB67LbwEG0Lq-7qtbD2MFjwRpUXr93eQe85-ceYauQsbmyveEDxfihsE8b5WxyfZOCixpaG3YCuNiSSADmTDUlg6eIDfvr5Fj0m81ZU/s1600/IMG_1177.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5r7UQdFGG3Kolwmv7OQWrtIoHs38cecB67LbwEG0Lq-7qtbD2MFjwRpUXr93eQe85-ceYauQsbmyveEDxfihsE8b5WxyfZOCixpaG3YCuNiSSADmTDUlg6eIDfvr5Fj0m81ZU/s640/IMG_1177.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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Additional notes:<br />
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The wall color is Cosmic Rays by Olympic from Lowe's. We sprung for the primer/paint in one. <br />
The armoire color is from the oops pile so I don't know the name of it. <br />
We opted to remove the other two pieces of the entertainment center that flanked the armoire because it always seemed a little too crowded for me. They're in the dining room awaiting their next assignment.<br />
The matching table and chair were scored last year on my birthday when our town had it's annual citywide garage sale. Not sure what I'm going to do with it as far as color or fabric goes, I think I'll just live with it for a while and see how I feel.<br />
The back story on the crate/coffee table can be found <a href="http://pamelotta.blogspot.com/2012/01/pancakes-and-french-fries-today-im.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://pamelotta.blogspot.com/2012/02/william-morris-thursday-laundry-room.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
The inspiration for all of this can be found <a href="http://www.thehandmadehome.net/2011/11/living-room-revamp-pams-space/" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
I'm <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/03/potatoes-and-onions/" target="_blank">linking up</a> with Jules at Pancakes and French Fries for her weekly <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/the-intentional-home/" target="_blank">William Morris project</a>.<br />
I'm also linking up with A Bowl Full of Lemons Tuesday link party. <br />
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<a href="http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/2012/03/one-project-at-time-tuesday-link-party_27.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH1sXV8aY8FA-VTf_7SfLTX4lhQlhqfxZWLgpILqDcm5cj4Et35VsFn9Xr6ve6uHvE-HcBaX8ARI6VMZUKcCRjhEhCvCYVXWUUWMGbiPrkRKyp3BgpMMWCp3yGROvGGt9sZWlG/s320/one+project+link+party.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Join me?pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-84672009338092069262012-03-01T10:07:00.001-06:002012-03-01T10:07:56.070-06:00William Morris Thursday - the laundry room, part 2<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/03/organzing-recipes/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/WM-pink-and-gray-Rev3.jpg" /></a></div>
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Last Thursday, when my friend Brenda came for our regular Thursday project, I didn't have a whole lot for us to do. The week before she had given me the assignment of finding places for all this stuff to go, but that really only took 30 minutes to accomplish. And I did it 30 minutes before she arrived! ::procrastinator::<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD6WzbdEiBIUxauKN6Io0jE2DUMW1Vx-ExZDSulf41f9jUqR3Oe7lK8VhYKQWQeVdi_DYOwq8pKzVWaZCuf2oCMZ858BuJQy64uYA3ERpf-n86F0iVWShLSGmYrW2sx5T59Hjs/s1600/IMG_3837.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD6WzbdEiBIUxauKN6Io0jE2DUMW1Vx-ExZDSulf41f9jUqR3Oe7lK8VhYKQWQeVdi_DYOwq8pKzVWaZCuf2oCMZ858BuJQy64uYA3ERpf-n86F0iVWShLSGmYrW2sx5T59Hjs/s640/IMG_3837.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
I took the small, empty, plastic bins we had purchased the week before but hadn't used yet to sort the stuff. In the end, there were 2 boxes of photo/scrapbook memorabilia, a box of stuff for me, my husband, my kids, office stuff, media stuff and stuff to file. They are still in their bins, stacked neatly in the laundry room, awaiting my 'system' to be developed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLGyBMIYAeW9h0BFEcmK44urRJlnSaKINZzKwUzU3JFNbn3iIkCTV7t_RUxJlPwf-aMQ0sy6jDGSynRncwWbsm-haXmmSXXep7Lxwsaw7VrfHTzJ0YXYaZjl6GbVFxkwKOJiQJ/s1600/IMG_0809.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLGyBMIYAeW9h0BFEcmK44urRJlnSaKINZzKwUzU3JFNbn3iIkCTV7t_RUxJlPwf-aMQ0sy6jDGSynRncwWbsm-haXmmSXXep7Lxwsaw7VrfHTzJ0YXYaZjl6GbVFxkwKOJiQJ/s640/IMG_0809.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJySY9uxq1cCHtO3hxVw6jDfnMzcMB5QhiGhPZwj0vpwsBzQhR-QVSB5HRopLBRUeGDxQuJYU6S98liftiqkFgcLJoRaTlbM2pWnQqhqXFbDk7_3cSYwlDN_Kj2cOxiULSJ2wZ/s1600/IMG_0810.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJySY9uxq1cCHtO3hxVw6jDfnMzcMB5QhiGhPZwj0vpwsBzQhR-QVSB5HRopLBRUeGDxQuJYU6S98liftiqkFgcLJoRaTlbM2pWnQqhqXFbDk7_3cSYwlDN_Kj2cOxiULSJ2wZ/s640/IMG_0810.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRTGQwDnkIt-W0xhkKOfI0UsSYvFRZBgzSLwwEhcyWsgjwdpg8ivgaNLu3gm_ZXqnH3PntztR-miUQNA46y0_EfuHpoDzl_GIoav_O9CXFsZpsejvzTVOe7n1S3de-CC59vuo/s1600/IMG_0808.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRTGQwDnkIt-W0xhkKOfI0UsSYvFRZBgzSLwwEhcyWsgjwdpg8ivgaNLu3gm_ZXqnH3PntztR-miUQNA46y0_EfuHpoDzl_GIoav_O9CXFsZpsejvzTVOe7n1S3de-CC59vuo/s640/IMG_0808.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
All of these containers were filled with stuff only a half hour earlier. Man, that feels good. A good deal of it was pictures. Over half of it I either threw or gave away. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7NdF4EP0kGcViRI9GvpJ9dIfAYpZoH033nzxLufMsskMUn58ZNjBxOj81EfUHsrzpbkgFAXwFzPtrQUhXvP_UDdUKBoY1nQ3E5RMhYkEBawkEGcSMtkodfuW7MMTpChW-M0e/s1600/IMG_0811.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7NdF4EP0kGcViRI9GvpJ9dIfAYpZoH033nzxLufMsskMUn58ZNjBxOj81EfUHsrzpbkgFAXwFzPtrQUhXvP_UDdUKBoY1nQ3E5RMhYkEBawkEGcSMtkodfuW7MMTpChW-M0e/s640/IMG_0811.JPG" width="478" /></a></div>
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This is the cabinet that I'm stuffing all my art/project stuff for now. I'll deal with that later.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzz5J2cWk92KCFqKDuFuJkY51rVLxfqkVix27blLyzcZcVFuNPZPZ0T8LPykM1-2iaSSYk1GHAxeRiDp2HplPgkNchPRp6RpunfYgSI2rdjmLUKk5a88-X_loZfNIKj8l9ga7a/s1600/IMG_3838.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzz5J2cWk92KCFqKDuFuJkY51rVLxfqkVix27blLyzcZcVFuNPZPZ0T8LPykM1-2iaSSYk1GHAxeRiDp2HplPgkNchPRp6RpunfYgSI2rdjmLUKk5a88-X_loZfNIKj8l9ga7a/s640/IMG_3838.JPG" width="478" /></a></div>
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And I had great plans for this little file cabinet. I was going to load it up with all things paper and decorate it in a pinterest-worthy manner. But when it was all said and done, I ended up with not that much paper after all. I may have to get rid of it. ::shudder:: If Jules can sell a <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/too-much-storage/" target="_blank">nice piece of furniture</a> because it's not useful anymore, I can (gulp) get rid of a crappy filing cabinet.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghIjNuBpwm1r7SXjZuMG0NcvetcFBZ8sziTCw6MXXg35aWJfqhyphenhyphenxL5xJvO3R1K7WnZODutHN3_zr8yDfsIIALvIqpB7HSPOhO5fb2A9IN8dZ6CrmcFPhDFxHGd1-qsbc59e3te/s1600/IMG_0812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghIjNuBpwm1r7SXjZuMG0NcvetcFBZ8sziTCw6MXXg35aWJfqhyphenhyphenxL5xJvO3R1K7WnZODutHN3_zr8yDfsIIALvIqpB7HSPOhO5fb2A9IN8dZ6CrmcFPhDFxHGd1-qsbc59e3te/s640/IMG_0812.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
While Brenda made labels for file folders for what little paper stuff I had left, I went online to make sure all of my bill-paying sites were set to paperless and change them all to automatically draft once a month. For some reason, I've been scared to do that. Probably because I'm not in a habit of looking at my account activity regularly. I've been afraid I'll miss something. Truth is, I probably would miss something which is why I switched everything over. Now I'm forced to look at it regularly. <br />
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Before we started, the light above Brenda was out and it was a little dark where she was working. I changed the bulb and realized it was a higher wattage than the other one so I had to change out the other one, too. Then, of course, I was forced to clean them because they were covered with dust that I have chosen not to notice because they are a pain to take down and clean. THEN, I noticed how much I hate these lights. One of my husband's friends came over a couple of weeks before his wedding and mentioned that they look like boobs. Of course he would notice, two weeks out from his own wedding. Ever since then, that's all I see. Thankfully, <a href="http://tatertotsandjello.com/2012/01/make-diy-pendant-lights-kitchen-remodel-project.html" target="_blank">Jen at Tatertots and Jello</a> has the answer for my boob lights.<br />
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Today, I have my son's first track meet to go to and we have to leave a little early so I'll be flyin solo on the organizing. I'm hoping for a beautiful weekend, though and maybe a jump start on spring cleaning. Ahhh, I love open window season!<br />
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I'm <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/03/organzing-recipes/" target="_blank">linking up</a> with Jules at Pancakes and French Fries for her weekly <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/the-intentional-home/" target="_blank">William Morris project</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/03/organzing-recipes/" target="_blank">Join me?</a><br />
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<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-57627001356828106992012-02-23T10:11:00.000-06:002012-02-23T10:11:31.117-06:00William Morris Thursday - the laundry room, part 1<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/the-intentional-home/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/WM-pink-and-gray-Rev3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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One of the reasons I'm doing the <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/the-intentional-home/" target="_blank">William Morris project</a> (along with everyone else who's <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/02/cleaning-out-toys/" target="_blank">linked up</a> over at Jules' blog) is because I feel like I've been blessed with a great house with lots of storage and I want to be able to use my house for its intended purpose and not get slowed down by clutter and disorganization. Other people may have other reasons, that's mine.<br />
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When I first got married, we lived in a small rent house with not that much stuff and it was cluttered and disorganized. When we lived in a larger rent house, with more stuff, it was cluttered and disorganized. Now I have the house I've always dreamed about, that my husband and I had built exactly the way we wanted it and guess what? It's cluttered and disorganized. Anyone else see a pattern here. I now know that it doesn't matter the size of my house, if I don't learn to live with less and keep what I do have in some kind of order, I won't be able to control it and it will end up controlling me. <br />
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Okay, enough of that. This past week I focused on my laundry room. A laundry room that I designed to be beautiful and functional and make the chore of doing laundry enjoyable. Is that possible? It has tons of storage space and a whole wall of windows. And last week, before I started this project, it looked a little something like this.<br />
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I know. It's a little deplorable. When I took my friend, Brenda, in there to start work last Thursday, she said, "Oh, this isn't that bad at all!" I know she was referring to the amount of work we had ahead of us, but I've been rationalizing about this room for years with that statement. And the current question of beauty/usefulness is easily answered. It's not fulfilling it's intended purpose and it frustrates and slows me down.<br />
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The first thing Brenda and I did was answer some questions about the space. What do I want it to be used for? What do I want to store there? These weren't easy questions for me to answer because I don't think like that. I'm not an efficiency expert. I'm not even an efficiency novice. I have lots of storage, so I could easily just put things in spaces and be done with it, but I want to have a system. A system that makes sense. Not just to me. I'm tired of being the only one in the house who knows where things are. At one time, I was proud of the fact that if my husband needed something and he didn't have a clue where to find it, I could tell him exactly what drawer it was in and what he needed to move to get to it. Now, I'm responsible for 6 people's things and I'm 40 and my memory's not so good anymore and I'm not the only one putting things in random places and my system is no longer working. For anyone. <br />
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In addition to laundry paraphernalia, this room is overrun with mementos and papers and a lot of non-categorizable stuff. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fXjRP096Tb0o6n6dcnmJ753nIprMmjJ_xzrkOs57LAH8VzAgFL1SFfk_GM0a5hIz6GPe0xnJ66cnwrw5nzgbq6Ql9jUY1Wq8WgBTg3oOCLiuwBp05IkQYS15gfCvX6ueKTxh/s1600/IMG_3836.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fXjRP096Tb0o6n6dcnmJ753nIprMmjJ_xzrkOs57LAH8VzAgFL1SFfk_GM0a5hIz6GPe0xnJ66cnwrw5nzgbq6Ql9jUY1Wq8WgBTg3oOCLiuwBp05IkQYS15gfCvX6ueKTxh/s640/IMG_3836.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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We started by deciding what the shelves above the washer and dryer would store. The first shelf will be for laundry stuff on the right. (It's not finished because I need some better containers.) The bottom two shelves on the left, are for current projects. The bottom shelf is for ongoing projects (my kids mementos that need to be put into scrap books) and the shelf above it is for current short term projects. Anything above that is not easy to access without a step ladder so it will be for things I don't use very often. I haven't decided what those things are yet.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyk7EHapCZgfC8xPiNbnaRZHg7JYJV-WSNmfJoS5QoMfqhfCLFPkMu7Srvy-mCynBw4R0o3gAbsIgite6ZSgz2wCv8o5ddmvc2A4Gdjk8iO5XtEhrynIXqFiobkTJ_xlIEOXzm/s1600/IMG_3839.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyk7EHapCZgfC8xPiNbnaRZHg7JYJV-WSNmfJoS5QoMfqhfCLFPkMu7Srvy-mCynBw4R0o3gAbsIgite6ZSgz2wCv8o5ddmvc2A4Gdjk8iO5XtEhrynIXqFiobkTJ_xlIEOXzm/s640/IMG_3839.JPG" width="478" /></a></div>
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This is a poorly thought out cabinet that's above the water heater cabinet. It's too big a space to be used efficiently. I'm looking for something to make it more useful and Brenda suggested I use the space to keep extra school supplies that I have a hard time keeping in stock because of my kids. I homeschool my three girls and anything that's left within their reach is used up or strewn about the house within a week. Like paper, pencils and art supplies.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiejdn9fsXBD0CTB7wRvvoVtgI_YKG7ApxqcGgTMU_w3umSpRqyuPeee0sVzrnJNWZxeF_bRq0QhqzMPJNA9Ten8_pV3gwTVOFyW5fDECskJpcumWa5C6eHhuz3D4TyiwpRpuJC/s1600/IMG_3838.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiejdn9fsXBD0CTB7wRvvoVtgI_YKG7ApxqcGgTMU_w3umSpRqyuPeee0sVzrnJNWZxeF_bRq0QhqzMPJNA9Ten8_pV3gwTVOFyW5fDECskJpcumWa5C6eHhuz3D4TyiwpRpuJC/s640/IMG_3838.JPG" width="478" /></a></div>
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This is the file cabinet that I plan on making pretty and actually using. For papers. The container sitting on top of it is where I put every paper I came across while cleaning out this room.<br />
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This is my sink area that hasn't seen the light of day for a long, long time. One of my kids said, "I didn't know you had a sink there. Cool!" You can't see it in the picture, but there is a rod above the area for hanging clothes. I might have a shelf installed above the rod, but then again, that would be more storage. We'll see. </div>
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I guess you could say that one half of the laundry room is cleaned out.<br />
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During this clean-out, we ran across a lot of papers and things that needed to be identified, categorized and put in a designated place. So, instead of moving on to the other half of the laundry room today, we're concentrating on paperwork and things of that nature.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgba6WgyRpKm9OU24u03R46ujLcHtZ3bRm1qiYIpyL3NGYzia-I9hZJmrn-QNnbBNPRW3oPLYJY4o1hQB96oZ6L7QAoGsGNMUCTsXojF6hNm1hXreMMEk9nNjzNOWQWq4Vu4zYp/s1600/IMG_3837.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgba6WgyRpKm9OU24u03R46ujLcHtZ3bRm1qiYIpyL3NGYzia-I9hZJmrn-QNnbBNPRW3oPLYJY4o1hQB96oZ6L7QAoGsGNMUCTsXojF6hNm1hXreMMEk9nNjzNOWQWq4Vu4zYp/s640/IMG_3837.JPG" width="640" /></a> <br />
This box was my assignment for the week and I didn't get to it. That's what we'll be doing today. Another reason for the push to organize the paper is tax time. The tax man has officially started to haunt me in my sleep. My husband is a self-employed commercial illustrator and a songwriter so tax time is always a nightmare for me. We have a miracle working CPA, but I am responsible for getting all the paperwork in order and crunching all the numbers before we take it to him.<br />
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Another thing I did since my last post was work on the crate/coffee table. <br />
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We sanded and made sure there weren't any sharp nails or screws sticking out and we worked on the wheels.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij7VNXPU5qybNicV46k_4H9DBcS1k9B6XkYmiQ2GBIRd8DtUgpqHduJqTG73me-7se0ZLHSggRjdfz6R1FoxJgmgVzL74HaDfu7LyiuaLnK8UuJeXbDYk-pbXqF2R8VvR0K_l1/s1600/IMG_3206.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij7VNXPU5qybNicV46k_4H9DBcS1k9B6XkYmiQ2GBIRd8DtUgpqHduJqTG73me-7se0ZLHSggRjdfz6R1FoxJgmgVzL74HaDfu7LyiuaLnK8UuJeXbDYk-pbXqF2R8VvR0K_l1/s320/IMG_3206.PNG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">wrong kind of attachments</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0ovhAwsHYNdlT74xZpKbYG-XisBYV6KIqk-Td-gXuZYYQSewMS2J7EqKLxjoHN-oTRhWMGWonPp3iJDjx7MSyez-Mz1o7EsjdId25H0nUcdT2BhpMmRoMPu6J8HDNYnMyOUf/s1600/IMG_3207.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0ovhAwsHYNdlT74xZpKbYG-XisBYV6KIqk-Td-gXuZYYQSewMS2J7EqKLxjoHN-oTRhWMGWonPp3iJDjx7MSyez-Mz1o7EsjdId25H0nUcdT2BhpMmRoMPu6J8HDNYnMyOUf/s320/IMG_3207.PNG" width="211" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I can't remember why these weren't right</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjnc86qMnqIjq_YLXpCfDc4XSgft5jqw9nsmxoQa9UVONoyCYVgqgVdMyFfaJrvq9BmoesQB0HKLFmbkz0JvhXLSLj9Q9gg5oMq0R8KPhPbNAozJ0zkTqL3dNfNOLCOiZh8e4p/s1600/IMG_3208.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjnc86qMnqIjq_YLXpCfDc4XSgft5jqw9nsmxoQa9UVONoyCYVgqgVdMyFfaJrvq9BmoesQB0HKLFmbkz0JvhXLSLj9Q9gg5oMq0R8KPhPbNAozJ0zkTqL3dNfNOLCOiZh8e4p/s320/IMG_3208.PNG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">not sturdy enough</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4uDU8TgtZR5r5C4vt5VQIwY7VmuH_lx3YXsd6E62M4hSwzWPVatqaryyat38KAgaCkkTGUnyX1dyZO6jgf5RJaAXU0wEm2kODCZP4WHjB8Zq1HdKOTFmxcpcM1eRHQzOLjUph/s1600/IMG_3209.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4uDU8TgtZR5r5C4vt5VQIwY7VmuH_lx3YXsd6E62M4hSwzWPVatqaryyat38KAgaCkkTGUnyX1dyZO6jgf5RJaAXU0wEm2kODCZP4WHjB8Zq1HdKOTFmxcpcM1eRHQzOLjUph/s320/IMG_3209.PNG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">too expensive</td></tr>
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So this is what I ended up going with. I like that they are made of steel, but I don't like how new they look. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4qg5hvWOWS0DvWFwxQGgiGNwCobTS3N0soGk4w8wJCF4Fja9CaSDmQLgvB98XaXqF0C2uXd06rRUtmAAueBzvHEewAy7zUgtrnVsDogppb8zRwqpGROOQV7syWxZ4oVJH2Zl/s1600/IMG_3210.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4qg5hvWOWS0DvWFwxQGgiGNwCobTS3N0soGk4w8wJCF4Fja9CaSDmQLgvB98XaXqF0C2uXd06rRUtmAAueBzvHEewAy7zUgtrnVsDogppb8zRwqpGROOQV7syWxZ4oVJH2Zl/s320/IMG_3210.JPG" width="239" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivrzyaddZgPObYYAkrY7aRLLUQZPzXjAt2fBQpJvNMs90wdOivfaycvl0wNGwuIZs-VlV2T-l9Tj7TuEXhyFWEXBupPclH_FiojYJloxEgSc4s9UHPgjx1a5sQnycyydfCEZdt/s1600/IMG_3211.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivrzyaddZgPObYYAkrY7aRLLUQZPzXjAt2fBQpJvNMs90wdOivfaycvl0wNGwuIZs-VlV2T-l9Tj7TuEXhyFWEXBupPclH_FiojYJloxEgSc4s9UHPgjx1a5sQnycyydfCEZdt/s320/IMG_3211.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
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A little dark stain and a spattering of brown spray paint (not pictured) was all it took to make them look old and worn like they had been there forever.<br />
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Now all that's left is to decide on a stain for the box itself, find hinges that will work and attach the wheels. This "weekend" project is turning into a month long one.<br />
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And that's what I've been up to this past week.<br />
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Linking up with <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/02/cleaning-out-toys/" target="_blank">Jules' William Morris project</a> at <a href="http://www.pancakesandfrenchfries.com/" target="_blank">Pancakes and French Fries</a>.<br />
pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-66155770968042744382012-02-22T10:05:00.004-06:002012-02-22T10:10:46.419-06:00Random Wednesday brain droppingsI've got some random brain dumping to do this morning. Feel free to stay and read it, if you want.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=24164&c=ib&aff=190854" target="_blank">Get it here</a></td></tr>
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I'm probably the only one who's noticed, but I haven't been reporting on my One Bite at a Time projects on Mondays. Probably because I haven't been keeping up with my One Bite at a Time projects. Instead, I've been doing William Morris Thursday and that is enough of a schedule for me. Sometimes, the projects coincide so I haven't totally dropped it.<br />
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That's my husband, in college. Foxy, right? He was a total babe! I, on the other hand, was a complete dork when he met me. And he married me anyway! I think I've gotten better over the years, though. So has he! In May, he'll be inducted into the sports hall of honor for his alma mater so we've been going through old pictures and newspaper articles. The kids are fascinated by this life their parents had before they existed. It's a funny thing to watch.<br />
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How 'bout these beautiful summer evenings we've been having? I love them. My kids go outside and I open the windows and can hear them laughing and playing while the evening sun streams in through the kitchen as I make supper. It's heaven. Well, I don't really want to be taking care of children and cooking supper in heaven, so that statement was a little dramatic. It's nice, for sure.<br />
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Speaking of my kids, my oldest daughter in particular, here's a birthday list that Anna gave me yesterday. She's very particular about what she wants this year. The one thing I'd like to point out is her last request. Ouch, that hurts. Upon further questioning, I found out that she doesn't mind being the recipient of a great Goodwill score, it's just that when it comes to her birthday she would rather get something 'new'! Fair enough. <br />
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Here's a bit of good news I got yesterday. Well, it's good news to me. And I'm kind of easily excited these days. These are the couches I bought off of Craig's List before Christmas. I'm planning on slipcovering both of them. I got rid of leather couches to make room for these plaid babies. I am really excited about this project. But, I still have a big, comfy chair that matches the leather couches (I used to own) that I haven't known what to do with.<br />
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It's kind of sentimental since my husband gave it to me for Valentine's Day several years back. The back cushion is really poofy and actually attached to the frame so I thought slipcovering it would be impossible. Then, I saw this <a href="http://www.pinkandpolkadot.net/2012/02/before-and-after-chair-slipcover.html" target="_blank">blog post</a>. It's by the same girl that wrote the e-book I bought on the subject, <a href="http://www.pinkandpolkadot.net/p/lazy-girls-guide-to-custom-slipcovers.html" target="_blank">The Lazy Girl's Guide to Custom Slipcovers</a>. She had me at 'lazy'. Now, I see that I might not have to part with my oh-so-comfy Valentine's chair, after all! I just need to do a little surgery and make her a new dress. Mr. Park isn't so sure about all of this unconventional altering of stuff. Either way, the room is coming together nicely, if only in my head. ;)<br />
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Tomorrow I'll be sharing the organizational progress in my house. We're on the laundry room, part 1. I've got a whole house to do so it seems like it's going slow, but I've also got all year to do it and I've got some pretty good momentum going so I'm hopeful. See ya tomorrow! <br />
<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-82572988366473645142012-02-20T12:09:00.001-06:002012-02-20T12:09:37.754-06:00Overheard this morning<br />
April: (<i>singing)</i> Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a machine<br />
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Autumn: April, it's not machine, it's dish.<br />
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April: Why would it be in a dish?pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-89378295145206816922012-02-16T05:00:00.000-06:002012-02-16T07:22:34.148-06:00William Morris Thursday - the laundry room closet<br />
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It's Thursday and that can only mean one thing around here - I've been busy! I've linked up with Jules again for her <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/02/jewelry-box/" target="_blank">William Morris</a> project and it's been so much fun! You should totally pick a project and join us!<br />
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Last Thursday, I told you that a friend of mine was coming to help me with whatever project I wanted to work on. I decided to start with my laundry room closet because the floor was covered with stuff and it was not even coming close to living up to its potential. And, when you have a house full of stuff you want to get rid of and your friend's coming to help you with it, you just pick something.<br />
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When we built this house almost 7 years ago, I wanted lots of storage. My mother-in-law instilled it in me. Build lots of closets and cabinets and drawers and you'll fill them all up and you won't regret it! Or something like that. She was right about the filling them up part. I've done that pretty well. Off of my kitchen, I have a large laundry room that I imagined the morning light pouring into as I cheerily folded towels and hung shirts. I'll talk about that reality another time.<br />
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In the laundry room, I have small closet with a large set of shelves to house things that I wanted to have access to, but wouldn't need very often. This laundry room closet began as a place to store leftover paint we used for our house and extra tiles and wood from our flooring. Then, we added things that we didn't want to lug out to our backyard storage building, and eventually, things that we just chunked in there like wrapping paper, fireworks and art supplies.<br />
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The bottom two shelves were filled with paint cans, some near full and some almost empty. Thankfully, our town has a recycling center where you can drop off old paint. If it's still good, someone will take it. If it's past its prime, it's disposed of properly. I think we loaded up about 10 cans.<br />
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There was no rhyme or reason to the stuff that ended up on these shelves. I remember being somewhat organized with it at some point in the past, but who knows what's happened since.<br />
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A whole lot of shoving and piling is what appears to have happened. Just look at that Jack-o-lantern laughing at my plight. <br />
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On Thursday, my friend came ready for work. We brewed a pot of coffee and got started. We pulled everything out and separated into giveaway, trash, my stuff and Mr. Park's stuff. Then we made a list of things that need to happen before next week. The purpose of the list was, of course, to keep me on task and help me think through some of the stuff I keep storing and moving, but not ever using.<br />
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My list:<br />
<ol>
<li>frame chicken print (For years I have intended to have it framed and put on the wall. And yet, it was at the bottom of the pile pictured above.)</li>
<li>put bulletin boards in girl's room (Same thing. I wanted to fix them up cute and hang them in my girls' room. Bottom of pile.)</li>
<li><strike>get desk from Goodwill </strike></li>
<li>take yellow desk to mom's house (It's in my bedroom and I'm not working on my bedroom right now. Duh.)</li>
<li>buy paint for laundry room closet (I have no idea what color I want that closet to be.)</li>
<li>have a hole cut and install a spigot in big jar (see below)</li>
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Okay, so maybe the list thing didn't work out. I only crossed one thing off my list and the only reason I got that one done was because it involved Goodwill and buying something at Goodwill. But the purpose of the list was served even though I didn't accomplish all the items this past week. If I wanted to keep something, I had to have a plan for it. And that gives me something to work toward.<br />
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For example, this gigantic old jar. My friend Brenda, the one who so generously came to help me, gave me this jar after she did a major clean out in her house. I thought it would make the perfect sangria dispenser for summer get-togethers. If only I could get someone to drill a hole in the glass so I could attach a spigot. When we came across it in the closet, she asked me why it was in there. I told her that I wanted to have someone put a hole in it for a spigot but I was afraid it would break in the process so I never had it done. She kindly reminded me that I hadn't used it one time since she gave it to me so if it broke, I wouldn't have lost anything. Yeah, I know, she's a pretty good friend to have around.<br />
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This is the stuff I removed that belongs to Mr. Park. His assignment was to go through it, get rid of the stuff he doesn't want and organize the stuff he does. I'll take it from there. Here's another example of the wisdom of my friend Brenda. I asked her where in the heck I should put the broken ice maker from our fridge and she said to put it in Mr. Park's pile and let him deal with it. Again, brilliant!<br />
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This is the stuff that still needs to be taken out to the storage shed. (I'm sure the reason this task wasn't done has something to do with the storage shed needing to be cleaned out.) #dominoeffect<br />
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We hauled out two big bags of trash.<br />
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And filled Brenda's little Mini Cooper with recyclables and giveaway stuff.<br />
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Oh, yeah, here's how that closet looks now. Some of it stills looks the same, but everything was touched and it's usefulness considered. Not finished by any means, but ready for some organization and decoration. Did you notice you can see the floor now?!?<br />
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Mucho thanks to Brenda who'll be here in a few hours to help me take a bite out of this beautiful mess...<br />
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P.S. I'll blow that picture up when I have an 'after' picture to go next to it. ;)<br />
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What are you working on? <br />
<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-53681770609817591762012-02-09T08:45:00.000-06:002012-02-09T08:45:31.608-06:00William Morris Thursday - a little progress<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/the-intentional-home/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/WM-pink-and-gray-Rev3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Last week, I was decidedly absent from Jules' <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/the-intentional-home/" target="_blank">William Morris project</a>.
After all, who wants to read a post about everything I thought about
doing? Every time I walked into a room, I was bombarded with thoughts of
what I want to get rid of and what I want to keep. Then, because of
(insert excuse here) I didn't actually do anything. This week I have a
few piles to show for all of last week's thinking. It's not much to look
at, but it's what I've got.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1zrCfgxTG1AKtShThfP2Cs5UJYKiY_RVjUQbtS_1NtTy0YDi9kBHEvfAaPjkEGHBj0VpTYE57iUAGLHxm91PPIUVOproWGcEDdHqUELurcEMvJLxPLglG3eC_meXTqqRuxNFi/s1600/IMG_3645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1zrCfgxTG1AKtShThfP2Cs5UJYKiY_RVjUQbtS_1NtTy0YDi9kBHEvfAaPjkEGHBj0VpTYE57iUAGLHxm91PPIUVOproWGcEDdHqUELurcEMvJLxPLglG3eC_meXTqqRuxNFi/s400/IMG_3645.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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This is the back of my car. It's filled with Goodwill stuff,
recyclables, plastic grocery bags and things that need to go to other
people's houses. It's now empty! Next to that, on the ground, is a bag
of things that didn't belong in the car and a bag of trash I collected
from the inside. Most of it was what I like to call "van mix" from the
floor boards. ((shudder)) The stuff that came in the house was a mixture
of clothes, coats, dishes, mail, hair accessories and coloring stuff.
It's all back where it belongs now. Ah, feels good, doesn't it?<br />
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This is my purse. It's a jungle in there. It's gotten so bad that
I've stopped carrying into places because I've realized how useless it
is.<br />
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It's like a big leather filing cabinet with some makeup and random toys and pens thrown in. <br />
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I dumped it out on the floor and as if it were some kind of bait,
within minutes my oldest daughter showed up to go through it. And she's
not even my organized one. (She just wanted to get out of doing her
reading.) Regardless, my purse is much lighter today because of it.
Thanks, Anna!<br />
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<br />
Today, a dear (x100) friend of mine is coming over to help me with
whatever project I want to work on. She's kind of my mentor/other mother
and she 'gets' where I'm going, what it will take to get there and
what's standing in my way, so she's offered her services once every
couple of weeks. Did I tell you how much I love her? When she called
earlier this week, wanting to know if I had come up with a project, I
was ready. I'll be spending a good part of today cleaning out the closet
in my laundry room and getting rid of all those things that, if I were
by myself, I would stare at for an ungodly amount of time and then set
aside for later. Just in case. I can't wait to see what we get done.
I'll share all the details next week.<br />
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Have you made any progress toward beauty or usefulness this week? Link up <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/02/how-to-store-wrapping-supplies-one-of-two-decabillion-ways/" target="_blank">here</a> and share! <br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-25192459541768482232012-02-03T08:31:00.001-06:002012-02-03T08:44:46.769-06:00Moves her momma didn't give her.<br />
This is my baby. But "boss of the world" would be a better title. She's got confidence in amounts I can't even fathom. I told her I wanted her to do a dance for me and she didn't hesitate before whipping up this little number.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxAzlCWbHddn0gIXTxoFpwoNbfYtc639P4Znaj-xN1ZsG1alF2NldwLghncGMnzPP0TR6Gb1fC-dIc' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<i>P.S. Sorry about the quality of the video. We're having issues with Youtube.</i><br />
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</div>pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-42201681362890508462012-01-31T07:30:00.000-06:002012-01-31T07:30:11.009-06:00Conversations with my kidsOn careers.<br />
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This is my friend, Leigh Archer. His picture is in a real estate publication my daughter picked up at the store yesterday. She was looking at all the pictures on the back and when she got to him she said, "Whoah! I know that guy!" I told her who he was and she was awed. Rock start status, I tell you.<br />
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Then, later that evening, my 13 year old son picked up the same publication and asked me what I was doing with it. I told him that Anna had picked it up and noticed someone we knew. Here's how our conversation went after that.<br />
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John: Who's that?<br />
Me: It's Leigh. He goes to our church.<br />
John: Why's he on that ad?<br />
Me: He sells houses.<br />
John: Is that why he's so rich?<br />
Me: What?<br />
John: He has a nice car.<br />
Me: Yeah.<br />
John: He has a nice house.<br />
Me: Yeah.<br />
John: He has nice glasses.<br />
Me: Yeah.<br />
John: He always looks like he just took a shower and he's from Canada.<br />
Me: So based on all those things, he's rich?<br />
John: Yeah. He's cool. I wanna sell houses.pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-68093399392123953252012-01-30T08:14:00.000-06:002012-01-30T08:14:11.323-06:00One Bite at a Time: Bite #23 - Regularly turn off your tvI sort of chose a gimme task for this past week's project, regularly turn off your tv. It's something we already do, but since it's not that intentional, I realize it has the potential to get out of hand. When we're all at my in-laws, the tv is almost always on. That's really the place I need to enforce this one. <br />
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The thing that is intentional, though, is the lack of satellite tv at our house. My husband made a promise that he would never pay for television and so far, he's kept his promise. I've noticed that when I'm at my in-laws there are so many options, some of them very educational, it's easy to pick something that seems harmless and waste a couple of hours. It is harmless if that happens only occasionally, but if we had that many options at our house, it would be a regular thing. Especially with my need to get what I pay for.<br />
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So, in our home, where we have about 5 channels of less than mediocre programming, we are content with a regular movie night, provided by Netflix. My husband and I have complete control over what our kids are watching and have the freedom to be intentional about it. Sometimes, it's something fun, and sometimes we have a hidden agenda to educate. No matter, we are all together, popcorn in hand, enjoying something that was a planned event.<br />
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Regularly turn off your tv - check. What does your family's tv habit look like?pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-34256247878236979132012-01-26T09:17:00.001-06:002012-02-09T07:52:08.549-06:00William Morris Thursday - My girls' wardrobe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/WM-pink-and-gray-Rev3.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="161" src="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/WM-pink-and-gray-Rev3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I'm linking up again this week with <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/too-much-storage/" target="_blank">Jules' William Morris</a> project. Get the full scoop <a href="http://pancakesandfrenchfries.com/2012/01/the-intentional-home/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I know I said I would be done with my <a href="http://www.pamelotta.blogspot.com/2012/01/pancakes-and-french-fries-today-im.html" target="_blank">coffee table project</a> by now, but neither my schedule nor the weather has cooperated. My theory is that the two have conspired against me to keep it from getting done. The days it's been nice out, I haven't had time and this past weekend, when I had a full Sunday to get it done, it looked like this.<br />
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I don't know if you can tell by this picture, but that's some other town's dirt in the air. Not sure if it was Midland or Lubbock, but it wasn't ours. It doesn't do that very often, but when it does, I don't go out. For anything. I stood on the porch just for a minute to get a picture of the sun and my legs were stinging from the sand in the air.<br />
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So I stayed indoors and did some organizing. Not as much fun but so necessary. I have 3 girls and two of them are 19 months apart, so I feel like I am overrun with girl clothes. To make matters worse, both of the kid's grandmas like to pick things up for them now and then and I have a great friend that passes most of her girl's stuff down to them. That makes for mounds of clothes in my house. An unnecessary amount of clothes. I've known for some time that they have too much, I just couldn't bring myself to pare it down. Well, trapped inside my house this weekend, that's what I did.<br />
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Here's all the clothes they own. Well, I should say all the clothes they own that are in season. There's more in the attic for summer. The piles toward the top of the picture belong to my youngest daughter and the piles in the bottom half of the picture belong to my two oldest daughters.<br />
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Oh, wait, I went in their room and there were clothes everywhere. I mean, everywhere. I didn't get a shot of it, but I did get a shot of the big basket that I hauled out of there and then had to sort because I didn't know what was clean and what was dirty. In their defense, I haven't modeled very good habits when it comes to the whole business of clothes. They come by it honestly.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXzqjFMbG0ciPBRDaVeCftN6uHl2svmFXNXPctIKVDj5Xst4_-M2LD4Wtu7MZmcufdqZGJA3bEYPZfnDktJJZ9zo2DKzLq12b22bGEyiMxAJq5RP9FQTDxVb6vUKACMPfYT-z/s1600/IMG_3314.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXzqjFMbG0ciPBRDaVeCftN6uHl2svmFXNXPctIKVDj5Xst4_-M2LD4Wtu7MZmcufdqZGJA3bEYPZfnDktJJZ9zo2DKzLq12b22bGEyiMxAJq5RP9FQTDxVb6vUKACMPfYT-z/s400/IMG_3314.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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I put that into the wash and then sorted it. Then, I had the girls pick their favorite outfits. I probably let them pick too many, but we did make a sizable dent in it all. Some of the rejects will go back to my friend and some will go to the consignment shop in town.<br />
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Here's everything hung up in their closet. I have to admit, after the girls chose everything they wanted to keep, and we loaded that same blue laundry basket with it all, I felt like it was still too much, but once I got it in the closet, it looked normal. Normal, of course, by first-world standards. ;) I was thinking about buying a Martha Stewart closet system like the one <a href="http://fourflightsoffancy.blogspot.com/2012/01/closet-organization.html" target="_blank">Andrea</a> posted about last week, but since I don't have the extra cash right now, I rummaged around my house and found cheaper, flimsier versions of the components I needed and that will have to do for now. <br />
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They're only 5, 8 and 9, but they are already showing a propensity for shoe hoarding. God help me.<br />
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All the usual dresser stuff, panties, socks, pj's, t-shirts and leggings, went into this dresser. Which I will be refinishing as soon as I can find a hole in my schedule to do it. It's a hand-me-down from my sister's husband, who gave it to us for our son's nursery 13 years ago. I haven't even begun to suck the life out of this thing. That's what a well built piece of furniture is worth.<br />
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This is the girl's other closet. Obviously, I have given them free reign to use it as they please. Eventually I will take it back and organize it. Not today.<br />
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And that's my completed project from this week. I've been so motivated by everyone's accomplishments, I think this just might be the catalyst I needed to get it all done. Thanks Jules! <br />
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</div>pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-42534119301869033552012-01-25T13:05:00.000-06:002012-01-25T13:09:02.742-06:00The problem with choices<br />
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In our house, we've been trying to give our kids more choices. When they are acting up, I give them a choice between changing their behavior or continuing - with consequences. It works pretty well when I don't get lazy and resort to ordering them around like a drill sergeant. <br />
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My youngest, April, is pretty used to the drill. This morning, she was making noises at the table while we were trying to do school. I gave her the choice of making noises in the other room by herself or stopping the noise and staying with us at the table. She sighed and chose to stay with us.<br />
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Later on, I was giving her her reading lesson. She told me she had to go to the bathroom and when she came back she had this to report:<br />
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April: I was going to the bathroom and God told me I had a choice whether I wanted to wipe or not.<br />
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Me: Oh, great. Well, what did you choose?<br />
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April: I chose not to.<br />
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She later admitted that she was just joking. I didn't check to see.pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37668291.post-12577140632851732762012-01-23T07:27:00.000-06:002012-01-23T07:30:37.489-06:00One Bite at a Time: Bite #3, Establish a morning routine<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3gGn0WXlV5zVSC_edFuy_4noqpPGXpHTsY06yO-DpsqoP59S9ou49ARSnKpWJQbPBwhFt2Mg_nh_Bx-UEWWhY0zz0wLgvtP_otLbyDg74odBfLT-bH3sTfP1lF1-OSfIBpgV/s1600/One_Bite_300x250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3gGn0WXlV5zVSC_edFuy_4noqpPGXpHTsY06yO-DpsqoP59S9ou49ARSnKpWJQbPBwhFt2Mg_nh_Bx-UEWWhY0zz0wLgvtP_otLbyDg74odBfLT-bH3sTfP1lF1-OSfIBpgV/s1600/One_Bite_300x250.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=24164&c=ib&aff=190854" target="_blank">Get it here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Since I'm only 3 weeks into this 52 Bites thing, it seemed pretty natural to me what project I should complete this week. Project number 3 is "Establish a morning routine." Lord knows my mornings are usually a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of affair unless I have something in my schedule that requires a plan. Schedules, let alone a specific morning one, have never really been on my radar, but I realize if I'm wanting some different results in my life, I have to change some things.<br />
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I am not a morning person, per se, but I can easily adapt to something that's required of me over a period of time. That's what happened when I started having kids 13 years ago. Even after all these years, I still wake up a hot, groggy mess, but I can function when I need to. Thank you, coffee. My current schedule requires that I wake one child at 7, fix breakfast for that child and either send him off to school with my husband or take him myself. While I'm doing that, my other 3 sleep until I wake them up.<br />
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And that, folks, is about the only schedule I have. It's a little more hurried when I have someplace to be or Tuesdays when I'm hosting coffee, and a little more laid back when it's just a regular day. And on the weekends, I sleep in. Period. Granted, I can't sleep much past 8 anymore, but that one precious extra hour has become golden to me.<br />
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When I read over the section about establishing a morning routine, I started to dread it. I know my day will go a lot smoother if I have some time to myself every morning, but I've just never done it so I can't imagine being able to establish a habit in that area.<br />
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Here are some suggestions, from the book, to include in a morning routine:<br />
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Take a shower<br />
Pray<br />
Exercise<br />
Drink a glass of water<br />
Stretch<br />
Make your bed<br />
Read your Bible<br />
Meditate<br />
Journal<br />
Take Vitamins<br />
Read encouraging quotes or a devotional<br />
Review your family purpose statement<br />
Listen to a particular song<br />
Sit outside for a few minutes with a cup of coffee<br />
Dump your brain<br />
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Hmmm, I can see I'm going to have to wing it. Which is what I should be doing anyway because no one can make a morning schedule for another person. It has to be personal. The only thing I do regularly is drink a cup of coffee so that has to be in there somewhere. And a list. I love making lists so maybe I'll sit with my coffee and make a list for the day. I guess that would be considered dumping my brain. I do remember a time when I used to sit on the edge of my bed in the morning for about 10 minutes doing nothing. My husband used to call it 'sitting', but I think all that was was me waiting for my brain to wake up so I could actually function. Eventually, with the increasing needs of my children, I didn't even have 10 extra minutes to sit on the edge of my bed. Things have calmed down a bit since then and now my kids are more predictable sleepers so maybe I'll revisit the sitting. I'll just have a cup of coffee in my hand and I'll make a list for the day.<br />
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So here's my new morning routine:<br />
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6:45 Get up, wake John up, sit, drink my coffee and make a list until John comes in for breakfast at 7. (He takes a shower every morning)<br />
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Since this morning routine just involves me, it seems pretty simple. Fifteen minutes of me time may not sound like much, but I think it might be just what I need. Then, when everyone else wakes up, I'll start my regular chores and things that involve everyone else. I'm not very good at keeping to a routine so I guess having a simple one to begin with is the way to go. If I can keep it up, and it helps, maybe I'll add some things to it. We'll see.<br />
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I guess I should change this week's project to 'come up with a morning routine'. I can't really say I've established it yet, but it's written down. Now, to do it. <br />
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What is your morning routine?<br />
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<br />pamelottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07055212577337197472noreply@blogger.com1