Sick Days Mean Crafty Days

I've recently developed a serious Pinterest addiction. The concept is simple: you get an account, you "pin" images and videos that inspire you in some way, you create "pin boards" to organize that stuff you like, you never look at those images again. 

Well, that's what I imagine most pinners do. Not this gal. I store those little projects away for a rainy day. Or a sick day. Or a I'm-feeling-cheap-but-need-to-get-a-gift-for-a-friend day. This past weekend, I happened to be sick. Pretty lame, as I had plans, but c'est la vie. I spent much of Saturday pinning crafty stuff to maybe do some day, and Sunday was a crafty day. I couldn't bear to have a sick day in looking out the windows at the bluebird day we were having. (Fresh snow Friday and Saturday followed by gorgeous blue sky Sunday) Of all the weekends to be stuck in sick, this was the worst! So I sequestered myself in the basement with my sewing machine. 

I did some simple, simple projects that were mostly Pinterest inspired. I took apart 2 sweaters that I shrunk or otherwise ruined in some way. Here's highlights from my favorite one.

My Smartwool sweater here- before I shrunk felted the darn thing in the wash. I was at a pottery class a couple years back:

So, I cut the sleeves off and cut a little slit for my heel. Now I own some warm wooly Yoga socks. Easiest project ever. 

There was a bit of fabric up by the neck hole area that lent itself well to being converted to a pair of fingerless gloves. I'm not sure if they will make me look like a bum, but I will wear them anyway - likely when I go running on cool days or when I want to be able to use my iphone without taking off my regular gloves. 

 With the body of the sweater, I made this really sweet pillow. I think the bows make it handsome. 

I'm taking today off for good measure. Just making sure I'm 100% better before getting back to work. 

What do you do with your sick days?

Well, that was nice.

I am now the mother of a 5 year old. Check it out:

So, there was sledding, and kids, and rainbow cake, and gifts, and me not talking about how it feels to be the mother of a 5 year old... 'cause honestly, I'm still processing it. Happy birthday to my baby, who informed me that she is most certainly not a baby, as she's 5 now...

Resolution Check-In

OK, so it's day 6 of 2012 and I can safely say I own this year!
Checking in with the resolutions I made earlier this week:

• organize
• water my lawn
• save for Eurotrip 2012

OK so I've already taken steps on the organizing front. We had a board meeting last night and I laid it out that I needed more help from the others and that the treasurer was just not keeping up with his responsibilities. I'm not known for being too gentle with people's feelings, especially where my own stress level is involved, but a few bruised egos and some explanatory emails later, it looks like we're going to have a new, more organized treasurer and a few other changes on the board. I've got to do a bit more work to make things easier in the long run, like listing some tasks to delegate, but I have a good feeling about this one!

The watering my lawn part has to do with giving a bit more love and attention to my family. Although some of the week was taken up with meetings and such, I think I'm doing better at this. Just "showing up" and being present is a big thing and something that gets forgotten about amid the to-do's of day to day life. We spent some time making pizza and watching a movie the other night, and I've been making more of an effort to listen to the others in my household. I think this one will be more of a slow and steady shift, but I know the greatness that my little family is capable of, so I will definitely keep on it!

Saving for Eurotrip is so exciting! A few years back, before the baby came, we did Dave Ramsey's financial fitness plan and killed our debt. It was so exhilarating to pay off each credit card and loan. Well, we're tackling this savings plan with as much intensity and enthusiasm as when we took on our debt.  T called me from work yesterday to set a savings goal for January and we are already well on our way! He even sent me a dorky email with a cartoon drawing of one of those fundraiser thermostat things with the red filled in up to where we're at. Adorable. 

I'm also on this fitness kick that has me working out every day. Although it wasn't a big new year's goal, I'm pretty proud of myself for it. Maybe I'll even be fit enough to enter our cross country ski race this year. I'm just hoping for some more snow.

Now, I suppose I ought to tackle those dirty dishes...

In 2012, I Resolve To...

New Year's Resolutions are not typically my thing. I like to periodically look at my life and try and work on making it better without a calendar date to tell me it's time.

This year, my goal-setting and the new year happen to coincide. 

I've got a couple of different resolutions that relate to each other well. Before I go into that, I'd like to say how pleased I am with my self that I don't have those typical "lose 50 pounds" or "quit smoking" resolutions. I was going to try and lose about 5 pounds and get into better shape, but thanks in part to bodyrock.tv and myfitnesspal.com, I did that in December. Now it's just keeping up the fitness and maintaining the weight for me. So, not really a resolution. But I do have a few that may sound familiar to you. In no particular order, in 2012, I resolve to: 

• Simplify

This relates mainly to my volunteer work. I am determined to find a way to make it what I want it to be so I can spend less energy doing things that don't excite me. It's not always about having the time to do these things, it's also about having the energy to devote to it. The more energy I devote to volunteering for stuff I don't want to do, the less I have to spend on the fun stuff. 

Simplifying can also relate to the other ways in which I'm already working on simplifying: my home decor, wardrobe, diet, schedule, etc. 

• Water My Lawn

I saw this post on Pinterest the other day and it fits me well right now:

Not that I'm about to jump ship or anything, but every now and then the day to day of hum-drum life seems just a bit blah. A bit unfulfilling. I think it's natural for the mind to wonder what if. To look outside of ourselves for validation and worthiness. So- I resolve to water my own lawn.
I've got tons of great stuff going right now. Seeing what I have and appreciating it is great and needed, but I've got to do more. I've got to "bring it." Nurturing the parts of my life that nourish and fulfill me. Things I will "water":
My health- continuing to exercise and eat well and take vitamins. Keeping up with good habits and being generally loving toward myself.
As taking care of myself is quite important, I've also got to give some love to those that love me back.
My family- From the outside, my husband and I have a great relationship and really, we do. Being human, we do have things we need to work on. When I'm feeling less than fulfilled in marriage, I will often look to my husband, thinking up ways he can improve and picking at things that just don't seem like enough. This year, I'm going to work to shift my awareness here. Sure, there's things that I want to be different, but what am I bringing to the table, here? If I don't bring myself 110% to the marriage/ family/ household picture, there's no way the grass on this side will be greener. Then what? go to the "other side" and fuck up that grass? No way.
Along with that, bringing more of myself as a parent to my daughter is a 2012 plan of mine. If my daughter is acting like a turd, it's likely because I haven't yet done a good enough job of teaching and modeling how not to be a turd. (Not that she's a rotten kid or anything, but she is a kid.)
For me this year, watering my own lawn looks like bringing more of the best parts of me to my family. They are the ones who help me thrive and they deserve more of the best of me.

• Save Money For Eurotrip 2012

So, we bought our tickets to Europe! This effectively drained our bank accounts. If we don't do a great job with focus and savings in the next 6 months or so, our Europe trip will look like this: We fly to Berlin and hang out for 3 weeks at a friends house, eating rice and beans and wandering aimlessly on foot 'cause we're dead broke. We'd rather our trip look more like this: Some visiting in Berlin, travel to Paris, South to the French Mediterranean, Over to the Swiss and/or Bavarian Alps [hiking!], Cruise down the Rhine and head back up to Berlin all the while tasting wines and beers and chocolates and cheeses and touring museums and castles with the possibility of a night at the Moulin Rouge in Paris and a night at a rock concert in Berlin. 

While we could have fun either way, I'd rather my first ever overseas trip look more like the latter. 

So, how do we save? We really live a fairly frugal lifestyle. That said, there are ways we can cut back a little more. We do tend to dine out more than we need to. Even if we choose to go to restaurants, we can make little changes like splitting a meal (T and I used to do that a lot) and ordering water instead of wine with dinner. 

We've spent quite a bit of money and energy in the past couple of years on home improvement projects. At least for 2012, we can ease off the house projects and send that money to the bank for our trip. 

Of course, any "found money" or spare cash, or if by chance, we get a decent tax return, that will go to saving for the trip as well. 

We are fairly good at saving and "telling our money where to go" so I'm confident we can do it, we just need to keep reminding ourselves of our goals. 

Along with these 3 resolutions, I've got some minor goals of nurturing friendships and not stressing so much about things that I can't change, refocusing my business goals and that sort of thing. Lils starts kindergarten in 2012 so it's overall going to be a big year! 

With that said, Happy New Year! 

I hope 2012 is the best year yet for you and yours. 

Survived the Holidays!

Christmas is officially over at my house. It ended when Lils and I took down the tree today and shoved it out the front door. It will look lovely in the New Year's Eve conflagration on Saturday. 

For all my grumpiness around the holidays, I actually did quite well this year.
I managed to Christmas shop without breaking the bank. I've got a marketable skill as a massage therapist and am convinced that a good massage is all anyone really wants for Christmas. I hit up a couple of local business owners and bartered gift certificates to gift shops, boutiques, and even a hair salon. I even gave some massage gc's directly to some people who I know would use them. There's a good gift at little cost to me. We also gave out cookies and cranberry chutney to folks. I even baked some gluten free cookies for those people in our life that eat that way.
So, as the gift giving tends to be the most stressful part of the holidays for me, I am happy to report that it went quite well this year! Kiddo's best gift from us was a handmade doll changing table. For $10 at the thrift store, we got this:

 And turned it into this:

I love that she is still at that age where the biggest gift she asks for can be got for very little. We were pretty proud of ourselves for making it, too. 

I feel like I made out well this year, stressed way less than usual, and didn't go broke trying to make things just right for everyone. 

For now, I will look to 2012 with great anticipation. We bought our airfare to Europe as a gift to ourselves this year. 

Flashlight Dance Party

Our little family seems to have developed a ritual for blowing off steam at the end of a long day (or series of long days). The flashlight dance party.
We turn off all the lights and blast tunes on the ipod as we dance around the kitchen holding flashlights. We go crazy. Jumping around and shaking it like drunk co-eds at a night club. Lils calls it "getting your sillies out." It's the best. We get to blow off steam and re-set our moods. Sometimes the best things to do as a family can be just goofing off.

Our playlist for the flashlight dance party tonight:
E Eats Everything -They Might Be Giants
Shake It- Michael Franti
If I Ever Leave This World Alive- Flogging Molly.

Nothing like visiting a friend's spotless house to make me want to come home and clean.

We had a little pizza playdate party with a good friend. The woman has 3 young, rambunctious boys, and her house is somehow spotless! Now, I know we all do some level of tidying up before people come to visit, but I've been over a couple of times and am convinced that her house is usually this neat.
How is it done? She intentionally keeps the place sparsely decorated and not cluttered. Sheer avoidance of nick-nacks and whatnot. OK, I've got that part pretty well covered and still have piles of STUFF everywhere! I like to blame my mess on kiddo's toys. (neat friend has a playroom and we don't) There's a play kitchen in our real kitchen. The TV stand is a play cube that is full of toys (currently, the openings are covered with blankets to make a "fort".) On any given day, you'll find a varied conglomeration of musical instruments strewn about the living room. And art supplies. The project of the day varies from bead work to collage making to your run of the mill coloring project.
Looking around my kitchen right now, I am faced with the cold reality that I can not blame the entire mess on one 4 year old. Strewn about this one room, I can see piles of ski club related paperwork, business paperwork, travel books, tiles and whatnot from the shower project, a counter full of dishes (clean, waiting to be put away), various laundry (mostly clean), today's mail, empty wine bottles (hic), a bathrobe, and, of course, a few toys and art supplies.
Other friends of ours have a magnet on their fridge that plainly states "Excuse the mess, but we live here." Of course, their house seems cleaner on any given day than ours does lately.
So, I'm striving for balance. I want the zen-like appearance of very little "stuff" cluttering our living space, with the comfort of a home that says "hey, we live here."
If I ever discover the secret for myself, I'll be sure to share.

Living in the projects

Ok, so it's not "the Projects" like you picture them. We seem to be in a constant state of home repairs. since we've moved in to our little house, we've embarked on one project after another. Constant state of work. Whenever I razz the Mr about not having any real hobbies, he responds with "working on the house is my hobby."
The day after we closed on the house, he rented a rototiller and dug up and re-sloped the entire yard. We haven't stopped since.
Our current project is the new shower. And of course, there's a back story.
A little over 3 years ago, we remodeled the entire 1st floor bathroom and put in this cool looking shower:

As it turns out, the shower was a total piece of crap. The base was made of some styrofoam stuff (not dense enough) and covered in a thin plastic. The styrofoam got some dents when stepped on, and the the plastic coating cracked in several places. Seems this company thought they could manufacture a shower not made to last 3 years. 

So we ripped it out.

 T had to change the location of the drain and do a little leveling on the floor. Voila! A new base!

 Up went the cement board. Then 3 coats of seriously smelly waterproofing sealant stuff. You think he looks high on fumes here?

 When tiling, it's mostly planning the layout and measurements. When properly planned, the tile goes up pretty slick.

Wait till you see the glass doors we're putting in! 

Although these projects can get to be a bit tedious (and dusty!) It always pays off with something better in our living space. I for one am ready to have use of my shower back!

To Market, To Market

I love the farmers' market.
OK, flashback 3 years. A friend of mine is wishing the local community had a farmer's market. She goes to another market in the region to check things out and suddenly she's the coordinator for the first ever farmers' marketplace in our depressed mill town. Inspiring to say the least. Last year, I lugged my massage chair downtown every other week and did back massages for a buck a minute. I alternated with another massage therapist in town. Mostly, I did it because I wanted to be in the market scene. I made a few bucks and left most of my earnings back at the market with the food and hard cider vendors. My business is pretty well established in town, however, and it seemed that folks thought I wanted to build up clientele. They'd refer me to folks thinking I needed more business. Not to complain about abundant business, especially in this economy, but I have been doing massage for 11 years and intend to do it for many more, so overworking myself is not on my to-do list. Also, since moving my business to my at-home office, I have been more discerning about who I let in to my space, and frankly, I didn't need every market client coming home with me.
So this past summer, I let the market go. Instead, I visited as a customer when I could, and liked it that much more (except that I often stopped by between in-office massage clients and rushed through so fast I barely got to say hello to those fantastic market vendors I've grown so fond of.)

My friend the market coordinator could not be stopped at a simple weekly outdoor market. She decided that the community also needed a harvest market in November just before Thanksgiving, and a Holiday market in December as well. So we moved indoors. Last year, I lugged my massage chair over and did the back massages and sold gift certificates. This year, I decided to devote my harvest market day to the ski club. As we're in the middle of a membership drive, I figured I could get some new and returning members on board and sell a few t-shirts as well. Plus, I can bring my 4 year old to sell t-shirts where she'd be distracting for massage.

Although I made no money for myself today, I brought in nearly enough to buy groomer fuel for the season. That makes me happy. 

Aside from the monetary gain for the club, I was able to talk up our events and programs, and shmooze with folks that may or may not have local influence and even money to help our cause. 

I also get to meet folks with Nordic ski history that puts my meager kick and glide abilities to shame. Today I got to meet a guy that won first in his division in ski-jumping in '68. From this 171 foot insanely steep jump.  

On top of all that, I got some amazing multi grain bread from a local baker, fresh local cranberries, and some leeks. All in all, a good market day.

Oh, and while we were at the market, (and the 6 year old's birthday party immediately afterward) the Mr. was installing the base for the new shower and some backer board for the fancy tile job we're doing. What a productive day! 

Moving In.

We spent much of Sunday cleaning and organizing the house. We're getting ready to "move in." Living in a climate with (at least) 4 very distinct seasons makes us sensitive to how we use our space throughout the year.
Our house is fairly small. About 1100 square feet or so, and a big part of it is taken up by my massage office. In the summer, we live outside quite a lot. The house cleaning gets neglected as we give attention to our gardens and other outdoor projects. (This year, it was 100' of privacy fence to guard against the prying eyes of a bad neighbor.) We cook on the outdoor grill year-round, but it's nearly daily in the summer. We have fires in the backyard pit a few times per week. In the hot weather, we bring our mojitos to the shade of the front porch. The size of our indoor living space is rarely a concern in the summer.
As the weather cools, we start to move in. Although we're pretty active outside with sledding, nordic skiing and other outdoor fun, the days are just shorter. When sunset occurs mid-afternoon, it's not as appealing to go out. Plus, we tend to get several below-zero days in the winter.
Along with putting away the lawn furniture and getting the snowblower running, here are some things we do to adjust as we move in:

• dust the damn house - It's just not something we do in the summer. 
• re-arrange our space- This is a constant with us. We recently did our bedrooms, working toward a minimalist look and adjusting furniture for more usable floor space. 
• organize the basement- We use a section of the basement as sort of a rec room. It's not pretty, but it's functional. This time of year, it looks a bit like a campmor catalog threw up down there, so we're picking up and putting all that stuff on shelves. 
• de-clutter- It's a constant struggle around here, but the clutter gets worse in the winter. I'm still trying to figure out a way to effectively organize papers related to the ski club I volunteer for. They end up in a pile on the kitchen counter for weeks until I get around to filing and dealing with it all. Along with that kind of "grown-up" clutter, we have a plethora of "kid clutter." That's a whole other monster to deal with. So- we're nowhere near perfecting this step, but getting better each year. 
• organize- It goes along with de-cluttering, but I look at organizing as assuring that when I get around to de-cluttering, there's a space for all that stuff to go. It's organizing the house so that everything in the house has a committed space where it belongs. 

These steps are helpful when mid-February comes along and we start to dream of building huge additions to the house so we can have more space to live. 

I have to admit, we do cheat a little. Last fall, we bought a 7 person outdoor hot tub. It's had a huge effect on our lives. It's like we added a room to the house that is the size of all outdoors. We often talk ourselves out of an expensive home addition while soaking in that thing. 

What kinds of things do you do to adjust to "moving in" in the winter?

The Unitasker

I've been reading the Unclutterer blog. Every Wednesday, they feature a "unitasker." That's an item that was created and marketed for one purpose. Usually, it's an unnecessary item as other items can accomplish the same task and take up less space in your home. 

We went to a Pampered Chef party at my Mom's house today.

They do offer a few useful items, mostly overpriced, but the thing that caught my attention was the amount of "unitaskers" they have available. Mango slicer, Corn kerneler, pineapple corer, peeler, slicer. 

These items will take up space in a cabinet or drawer, and a single knife can do as good a job while taking up less space in the kitchen. 

The thing is, this company is making these products and it seems someone is buying them, as they have been in business for a while. I have this mental image of some middle aged woman with kitchen cabinets overflowing with "unitaskers." 

Today, I bought a vegetable basket for the grill. It's something I didn't have, and makes a lot more sense to me than an avocado peeler.

Do you have a favorite kitchen gadget?

Looking Up.

This has been a wacky, stressful and overwhelming week. Rather than complain about the things that went wrong, here's a few things I'm psyched about.

Lil' One's room is painted. She picked pink. Caught us in a weak moment and we let her pick the color.

It's done and that's what's important. 

 We now have a "high efficiency" washing machine. We were able to go to the store and pick one out and take it home today. My dad lent us his truck so we wouldn't have to wait on delivery, and a dear friend helped with the install. (That's the guy that looks like Mr. Clean here.) This machine should help with the electric and water bills. 

 Kiddo went apple picking today with her cousin, aunt and uncle. We have 2 apple pies and this lovely apple & blueberry pie to show for it. 

Winning.

And the laundry piles up.

In the process of cleaning up the house from the enormous mess left by the insulation company, our washing machine died. 

My dad says all electronics have a special component that makes them work: Magic Blue Smoke. When the MBS comes out, the device no longer works. Well, that's what happened to my washer. In the midst of washing a load of curtains, the machine made a nasty sound and all the Magic Blue Smoke leaked out. It's kaputt for sure. 

As a massage therapist, and a mom, and a person who's trying to get construction dust under control, I need my washing machine. It's been dead just one day, and there's already a huge pile. 

I'm hoping we can get the new washer soon. ugh.

Is this week over yet?

It's been one of those weeks. 

After the tough dinner on Sunday, we went right into the home energy upgrades (insulation). 

We had no choice in who we were going to hire. If we went with this program, we had to use a certain "approved" contractor. 

Long story shorter. These guys were slobs. Of course, we'd expect a little mess whenever work happens in a house, but this was ridiculous. They left large gobs of cellulose insulation all over the house. The 2 attic access panels are blackened and nasty. 

When they started, we weren't even sure how the job was going to go, so we hadn't had the chance to move furniture or protect our stuff from dust well. 

I had no clue that when we hired these guys, we'd be left with the trash from the project to dispose of, and a house full of cleaning to do. 

And I'm still grumpy about the bad dinner we had the other night. 

I know, in the scheme of things, these are not real problems. When you're me, and you've got to spend the evening scrubbing down your house, well, I can become a bit unhinged. 

Hopefully, they'll make it right. 

Yesterday morning, this access panel was white. It's not just dirty. It's gouged. Thanks guys.

They left clumps of cellulose like this all over the house. You know that bristly thing on the end of a stick? Yeah. That's a broom. Use it.

and the saga continues...

Playing House

Now that the little one is 4 (and a half), she plays pretend, like, all the time. It got me thinking how we're still just playing house. 

Sure, the money has real meaning, and if the bills don't get paid, we'll have a cold winter, but grown-up house is not all that different from the "house" of the preschooler. When playing pretend at 4 or 5, it is your whole world and things can get very serious. 

Flash forward 25 years. Our house sometimes becomes our whole world. This is one of those times. 

We're currently in the process of weatherizing our home. The utility company got a grant which helped us to get 50% off energy upgrades on our home. There's another program in place locally that helps homeowners get the other 50% at a 1% loan. 

So we took them up on it. Our main concern was Kiddo's room, as the knee-wall was getting frost last winter. Usually these guys go in from the outside and blow insulation in. We had our house roofed and painted last year, so messing up the outside was not an option. I insisted they go from the inside, and it's a good thing, too. They opened up the wall and found some very wet insulation.

So they pulled it all out.

And insulated with some spray foam.

Tomorrow, they will close it in.  

We had lots of attic work done and they sealed up the basement as well. 

Lil' One will get new paint on her walls soon. We might even let her pick the color. 

Some of it was even paid for with pretend money.

Playing house is still an adventure for us.