new month new goal

November is over and I did what I set out to do. I have stayed with my cleaning/ simplifying/ decluttering/ organizing plan from the beginning of the month and I have not bought anything that was off limits. When I leave my home and return it's a relief to walk in because everything is in order. I no longer feel overwhelmed with keeping my home presentable. We do the maintaining as we go so it's not any major ordeal when "company" is coming or any other time for that matter. I feel really good about the homemaking part of most of my home. It feels good to have accomplished my goals.
Yet I'm sitting in my office. . . not wanting to really do anything but avoiding the inevitable du duh duah!!!!! It needs to be cleaned. It's the black hole in my home. I have done every room but this one. I have saved it. It's wore than all of the messy rooms that were in my house put together. Not dirty, but definately cluttered, junky, messy, dumped in, you name it, it is. It looks like I rented a wood chipper, took some yarn, fabric, thread, sewing notions, craft supplies, paper, office supplies, cd's, and other stuff, threw it all in while it was pointed to express everything into this one 12x10' room.
When we moved a year ago I vowed that this room wouldn't get into this state. At our previous home I had an office. It became the junk room, the only difference is that I had more stuff, it was from several years, and the rest of my home was cluttered and messy in spots too. I don't know how it gets like this. I'm trying to figure it out. It doesn't have to be this way yet it is.
I'll be cleaning in here this month though. I don't know how long it will take. This room is pretty bad and I can't have the boys in here with me while I work unlike some of the other areas of my home so that will definately slow me down, that or Mardie will get over his separation anxiety really quickly.
I do have a plan, but this is the over whelming type of job that is all nitty gritty where you have to touch everything at least once, and think about it, and review it and make a determination as to whether or not it's going or staying and if it's staying, where will it stay.
I'll be staying on my spending moratorium this month too. But Christmas purchases and storage solutions are game. This is not a change from last month so it should be easy.
Maybe when it's done I can post a pic of the after picture. I don't have a true before. As I drafted this post I cleaned here and there so it's already better than before.

Blue and Curley

This past weekend Rocky and I had to go back to Fayetteville to do some more work to our rental. Rocky got a lot accomplished. I only did a little priming of one room and watched the boys. I couldn't do much more. I was having back problems again. . .
My MIL and FIL happily watched the boys Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours and got their "grand" fix while Rocky worked on the yard and I visited with my bud Jennifer. We were just going to hang out but ultimately we ended up at JoAnn's buying fabric. I wanted doll hair that's made for doll hair but they don't carry it so low and behold while looking at fabrics I saw this really cool fleece fabric that looked like hair! I had to buy it do complete Blue. So of course since it's for Christmas gifts I did! I also found the perfect "hair" for Curley, Blue's older brother.
I finally got around to sitting down around the boys naptime. This morning was spent recovering from our trip where everything that could go wrong short of disaster did! It felt good to sew a little wig and relax.
Curley didn't get started until after dinner. Here's the finished products!

He's wearing some jeans, low rise. If he had a butt crack it would be showing cuz these are really really boy cut jeans! I completed his relaxed look with a Tye Dye Caftan. Curley is a little bit of a hippy! Well looking at Blue's hair and his uber cool hand knit sweater and cap I guess he's a bit of a hippy too! Charmie and Mardie will be receiving them for Chirstmas and possibly some additional outfits if I can get them done.

Knits for Blue

It was much colder here today as you can see from the fact that Blue's cheeks have a rosey quality that they lacked in his debut photo shoot. I decided in light of that weather change that he needed a handknit sweater and hat to keep him warm. He still has no hair so I couldn't just knit the sweater and have him all bald and cold up top while getting his picture taken. I used yarn scraps (Thanks Janet!). The sweater is inspired by a pattern that I am looking at to design a sweater for me. I started on it this evening after dinner and knit a little here and there. It went pretty quickly. The hat is simply 2x2 ribbing with stockinette stitch to obtain the needed height to clear his head. Once again, pretty simple.

I have decided that I have to curb this fetish with making clothes for him or I'll start getting questions as to why my son's doll has such an extensive wardrobe.
None-the-less I have planned a scarf, some jeans, and some slippers/shoes for him and of course in the warmer months he'll need some shorts, t-shirts, sandals. . .maybe Blue will even have his own blog. You never know so stay tuned.

Blue

Well, here's my first attempt at dollmaking since I was 7! Since I haven't named him yet I'll call him Blue for blogging purposes. Either Charmie or Mardie will probably name him as he will be given to one of them. He's made in Waldorf style. I tea stained the cotton for his skin myself earlier today. I had a hard time getting it to go darker. He's very light tan. . . I didn't want to photo him naked so I made him a little fleece hoody set. He wasn't that hard to make at all. Instead of Starbucks today I went and got the cotton fabric and some filling so I've been working on him on and off since around 3pm. I even stopped to cook and eat dinner. Rocky did help with the boys so that I didn't have to worry about them getting into my pins or needles or scissors. I am working on his brother. I've made the head insides but have yet to sew the skin onto him, embroider his face or cut out and sew his arms and body. I think I'm going to take a break though for the rest of the evening. A headache has been plagueing me and it just won't quit!
Blue, chillin' at the pc.

Blue takin' a stretch, man these pants are tight. Blue will have to watch out cuz they're riding up!

Blue's mug shot.

New stuff

OK, the play dough I made for Charmie and Mardie is addictive. I keep subconsciously getting up when I'm surfing on the PC and grabbing a bag of it out of the refrigerator to knead and play with. My keyboard is going to start to smell like flour. . .
I'm going to have to get some grown up clay to play with. I like working it in my hands.
I also am going to try my hand at doll making, stay tuned for updates.

Triangle Purse

I finished my triangle purse. . . well I still need to decide zipper or toggle closure and tack in the supports for the ends. It's weird because it's biased. It has a funky shape. I used Thick and Quick chenille with recycled sari silk, size 10 needles. This is my new bag. It's pretty generously sized so I can still fit lots of gear for me and my boys into it.

My plan is working!

It's only been 2 weeks so I guess it still remains to be seen over the long haul if it's truely working, but so far my efforts to simplify and declutter are working. After the weekend, and having some kind of 24 hour bug no less, my house was tidy and ready to go Monday morning! I cannot believe it because this is unheard of in all of my personal homemaking experiences.
I must continue. I don't want to go back to what it was.

lazy 5 ranch

Our church had an outing to Lazy 5 Ranch, and here are our pictures. I will uploas a few more later.

Playdough

I've wanted to make some playdough for the boys for some time but I didn't have the guts to try. . . too many variables such as: Mardie likes to eat chalk and crayons and sand and paper so playdough was one thing I didn't have to worry about unless I introduced it to him. Charmie sometimes goes wild with his toys and most of our home is carpeted, including our dining room. Playdough and carpet don't mix.
But I got brave. I was home not feeling well and I decided they would like to have something to play with so I mixed up a batch. They loved it!

In a large sauce pan on med mix together the following ingredients until it forms into a ball in the middle of the pan:
4 c. flour
4 c. water
1 c. salt
1/2 c. cream of tartar
4T oil

Remove clump/ball from the pan and put onto a lightly floured surface. Knead together until no longer sticky/tacky. Separate into equal portions and add food coloring or unsweetened Kool-Aid drink mix to reach desired intensityof color, or leave without color if desired. Knead in coloring until well blended and play away!
Playdough can be stored in air tight containers or bags in the refrigerator in-between uses. I love this recipe because it is soft and smooth not grainy feeling in the hands and is slow to dry or crumble unlike most home made dough recipes. And though it's not recommended that it be eaten, it's non-toxic.

French Market Junk Basket

I've started this new initiative to be de-cluttered and have a simpler method of maintaining my home. . .  I've been trying to keep up with my housewifery duties as much as possible on a daily basis, rather than letting my world and all of the junk in it pile up around me.  I've been reading a great book that my mom gave me, and talking to other homemaker moms around me for advice.  My friend Christi told me about how she manages the clutter that she might possibly bring into her house by having a large plastic tote in her garage that she dumps stuff into from trips out and about each time before going inside and clears once a week.  By having this tote she prevents all the "stuff" from cluttering her home, kitchen counter, desk, etc. 
I liked the idea but part of what I resolved to do this month along with simplifying and organizing was not bringing anything, ANYTHING else into my home unless it was a Christmas present, or a consumable.  This really sucks because I always love to shop and buy new things.  Since I had this bright idea and clever resolution (insert sarcasm) I was stuck when I decided I needed a tote. I have some of the same kind of totes that Christi mentioned but I had organized my stuff into them and I didn't have an empty one and my resolution prevented me from buying one.  So I did what any desparate housewife would do and went to my yarn stash and knitted one.  Here's my prefelted version of the French Market tote using this pattern as a template.

I used double stranded worsted light green for the base, my hand painted bulky for the varigated middle portion, then two worsted stands, one a muted rust, the other more a coraly pink for the rest of the sides and start of the handles, and strand each of the same light green as the base mixed with a darker loden green for the top of the handles.  Before felting it measured 19" x 24" and I used the two needle version of the base.  I only took the base 5 rows up the side vs. 10 in the pattern.  I made the sides 8" tall before I formed the handles.  As you can see it's big enough to hold lots of stuff that I might bring in with me from the car. . .   

Here's a picture of it after felting.  It measures 14"x14" for the base and 6" tall on the sides.  If I make another I might change the handles to one strand so that the fabric felts tighter and makes a thinner handle.  By having two strands the entire bag felted some, but remained sturdy and much larger dimensions than the pattern called for.  This was my goal because vs. yarn projects I wanted a basket to catch junk!

 

Starbucks

I'm nak-ing right now so pardon any typos. I have had an enjoyable evening I felt like blogging it now because I won't be online later. I just was given a special much needed gift from my dh.
TIME ALONE.
I went to Starbucks. I know that's so cliche' but I honestly couldn't think of a place that I would rather sit and just be alone.
I read, I knit, I made a phone call without distractions, no one touched me, I didn't have to share my lemon pound cake or my decaf chai, I didn't have to tell anyone "no" or "don't do that" or "be careful of your brother" or anything that I didn't want to say. No one pulled on my yarn, or bent my book pages. I was just me.
Now I'm done nak-ing. I'll knit some more.