Therapeutic Cleaning

A lot of you have been to my home and know that it is a very small condo, about 950 square feet to be exact. And I have lived in this little space for 23 years. You accumulate things over time. I don't know if I accumulate more things than other people. Maybe.
So that front room of mine houses an awful lot of stuff. If I lived in a bigger space, I don't think it would be a big a deal. But I go through and purge stuff pretty regularly. It's interesting to me, how something I think I should keep at one point in time, I am fine with getting rid of at a later date.
So we went on a home tour recently. Of course, all of these homes were very clean and nicely done. It made me feel even more cluttered. I had been having thoughts for a while that I wanted to clean out the area where my washer and dryer are. I had dumped things on top of them and never seemed to get back to really do anything with them.
So today, even though I didn't really have much sleep, I decided to tackle it.
So one of the first things I did was break my really nice white Williams and Sonoma bowl. I really liked it and was upset that I broke it. But it was really big and now I don't have to figure out where I am going to store it. (It is also the third thing I have broken in the last 4 days. I hope I'm done.)
I got rid of:

• a cute retro juicer that looks like a black and white puppy with a sombrero.
• A really nice large glass Christmas platter. I just couldn't keep storing something that I only used once or twice a year.
• a bunch of bug spray that I haven't used.
• carpet cleaning solution. I haven't had carpet in a year.
• a fondue set. I think I have two others somewhere else.
• a plastic tub.

I moved and reorganized:

• several empty plant pots and saucers.
• a really nice set of colored drawing pencils.
• my art supplies
• 2 big plastic bowls that won't fit anywhere else.
• the attachments to my vacuum cleaner that I don't use very often.
• my grain mill, waffle maker, crepe maker, mandolin, spice grinder, spare place mats, ice cream maker.
• A bunch of legal size envelopes.
• some treat boxes and bags to put goodies in for gifts.

So it looks nice now. I washed off my washer and dryer. I have basket on top of my washer with all my washing and ironing supplies. It looks so much nicer to me.

So where do the rest of you keep all this stuff? I still need to work on the rest of the room and it will never look like those homes we toured, I just don't have anyplace to put it really away.

One small step for sanity.

Memorial Day 2010

Penny's Husband

My Dad.

Snowman and Rudolf

Ginny at work asked me to make these as Christmas gifts for her neice and nephew she is raising. I had never made anything quite like them, but they turned out kind of fun. And I was able to use yarn from my stash. The only thing I had to buy was the eyes.

Tomato Forest

In case you somehow haven't heard me say it lately: I LOVE MY GARDEN!!
It's been just over a year now since I put in my planters. I have a tomato forest growing right now. Most of what you see in this photo is tomato plants! And they are covered in tomatoes and still flowering. They are all still green so far. I have lots of different kinds. I CAN'T WAIT!
In front of the tomatoes, is my basil and parsley plants. My basil has been growing for a year and is quite sturdy. It will taste great with the tomatoes.


I also have some cucumbers coming along. Can you see this one? I planted bush cucumbers so they wouldn't trail as much. It looks quite bumpy. I don't think that should affect the taste. I will let you know.

And my mini corn patch is producing! I had a nice ear of corn today at lunch! I was very excited. Last year, the ears didn't develop very well. You have to have enough corn to cross pollinate. This ear was pretty nice. I have a few more still coming along.

Here are some of my tomatoes. Like I said, I have lots of different kinds. Don't they look good?

And this is the last of my spinach. It's about toast. Getting too hot for it.

I have some summer squash coming along. No fruit set yet.

And I think this is squash too, not exactly sure..It might be baby pumpkins.

And my bell pepper plant is a year old. It's really producing some nice bell peppers now. Some are quite reasonably sized.

And I always seem to have some mystery plants that I forgot I planted. I have some flowers starting to bloom, that I didn't take a photo of. I'll wait till they are open. And this thing with purple flowers? I am not sure what it is!

I've also planted some black eyed peas, beans and okra. I'm not sure they will all survive but we are coming along. It's so great to garden all year long!

How green beans hijacked my day

I had a list of things I was going to do today. I had done some of them, when I stopped at Sprouts. While I was there buying Artic Zero ( a fat free, sugar free, fake ice cream), I saw some great looking green beans on sale. Suddenly I had a craving for the dilled green beans I make. They are really yummy and also fat and sugar free. The next thing I knew I was buying a bunch of green beans.

I hurried home and dragged out my canning supplies and recipe. Suddenly I realized I didn't have enough vinegar or garlic. So as I got the jars started sterilizing, I ran off to Fry's to buy what I lacked. I ended up buying some more green beans there.

So I now have 14 pints of dilled green beans. What I don't have is clean floors. Oh well.

Meanwhile, I am worrying about the air conditioner in my car. I added freon last week and thought that was going to take care of it not working all the time. It was great. Now it's acting up again. I'm worried I have a leak or something. Sigh.

I think I'll eat a green bean. And maybe some Artic Zero.

Dragonfly Afghan

Just finished this. I like the way it turned out. Now I have to figure out what to do with it!

County Girls

Years ago, I worked for Maricopa County Home Health Care. They closed it back in about 1996. Some of us have been meeting for lunch or dinner monthly ever since. Here is a photo of some of us from our April lunch.
I won't name names, because I'm not sure all would want their names on here, but this is us!

It's Been a Year!

A year ago this month, I met my goal weight. I am happy to say that I have beeen "managing" my weight for a whole year now. That doesn't mean I am always at exactly my goal, but that I keep an eye on it and take care of it as needed.
I am so glad that I was able to find something that not only worked for me, but gave me the tools to continue to manage my weight.
Life is good!
Now if I could only find a good guy to share my life with.....

Holiday scarf project

I had these patterns to do some holiday scarves. I thought they would be fun to try. I think you might either really like them or really hate them. I think they are kind of fun, with a simple holiday outfit maybe. Let me know what you think.
So they first one I made was elf faces. What happens is that they seem to want to curl, so I am trying to block them now. It looks a little like voodoo with all the pins in them. I pin them, spray them with water, let them dry and repeat. I am also putting just a little spray starch on them. Hopefully they will lay flat when they are done.

I think the gingerbread men are pretty dang cute. I also have a pattern for skates and penguins. We'll see. They take a little while to make. The good thing, was I was just able to use scrap yarn that I already had. So I know they are kitschy, but hate em or love em?