A few 'finished' jobs

I have a bunch of things I need to 'get to,' and today I actually tackled 2 of them. One was to clean out my fridge. I even went on Supercook.com and plugged in 'orange marmalade' so I could use it up (my mom made it and canned it!) and found a yummy-sounding chicken marmalade curry recipe I'll be making soon.

The other thing is that I've been meaning to paint my knife block. The kids gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago, and constant taking-in-and-putting-out of knives has worn off the paint. You can see the bottom half is the 'before' and the top is the 'after.' I finished it off and it looks much, much nicer! (I even painted over the metal plack because who cares who made it. 

I'm trying to do that picture a day thing, and not every picture will be very exciting. But it does document the little things that make up day-to-day life!

I'm also working on a hanging rack, which is the turquoise and black thing in the picture. When it's painted, I'm going to glue vintage thread spools on the front as 'hangers.'

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Getting there

The right side of my room is getting close to looking pretty good. I put the star afghan in a drawer in the dining room, where I'll be reminded to work on it more often. I threw out trash and switched out a box or two.
I'm feeling much better today. I think I might be somewhat dehydrated from being sick yesterday, because I can't stop drinking water. Good thing I keep a bottle in the fridge! We have really, really good water here (it wins awards for taste) but I still like it best when it is ice cold.
It's a good thing I am doing okay today because I have too much to do. I'm going to the eye doctor today for my annual exam. It's the fact my driver's license is up for renewal that pushed me, although have two pairs of broken glasses was a factor, as well. I really like Dr. Harris. He's an older guy and very funny.
Jamie is on the treadmill downstairs. One of these days I'm going to sneak a picture of him for my 365 photos. I think this project could get pretty boring if I don't put some people and animals in it more often. But I'm determined to stick with it!

A New Organizing Project

Nick came home yesterday. He really liked his 'new' room. Now I'm on to another project. Mike and Michael put a bunch of stuff up into the attic yesterday, and I found I still had more Christmas cr*p. So I put it all in one spot in the corner of my office. But I plan to work on the other side of the room this week. This is the before:

I want to get all the stuff off the top of my cabinets and move sewing items across the room to an empty bookcase I have. I was just watching Nate Berkus and he had Peter Walsh on. They both agree: keep flat surfaces clear and use vertical space. So I want to reduce what I have here to a minimum. Much as it looks otherwise, very little of this is 'junk.' It just needs to be organized to look better. And it might help if I ever actually finished the snowflake afghan I've been making for Katherine!

Saturday

Mike is sitting in his chair enjoying a bowl of oatmeal, watching television; a well-deserved rest after vacuuming the whole upstairs and finishing off Nicky's room!

 

I wish I had taken a 'before' picture, because the 'after' looks so good:

  

I need to keep a lookout for a sale on bedding, but the very fact you can see the rug is a big difference. Nicky comes home tomorrow. I hope he'll be happy with what his room looks like. More than that, I hope he makes an effort to keep it this way. Mike actually rearranged the furniture and it looks really good.
Two photos today. I found an article in a scrapping magazine that says people tend to get bored of this 365 photos thing, and what to do about it. So I'll have to be sure to read that when I feel the urge to give up. I think it will be cool to look at 'a year in our life' next January!

In an organizing mood

What is it about January that puts us in the mood to organize things? You should see my dresser drawers. I emptied them out, got rid of stuff and put stuff back in that's almost Martha Stewart perfect. Ooooh, I love having my socks neatly mated!
My son Nick is on a week-long trip to a gaming convention, so I'm taking this opportunity to overhaul his room. Picture a floor completely covered with clothes and crap. What you see above is Keep-Toss-Donate piles I made. Well, the toss pile is gone. I'm taking the donates to the Salvation Army store today. As far as the keeps, I'm trying to reorganize them. I've already put away videos, games and books. I'm going to pick up some of those things you hang up with clear plastic pockets for all the little junk, including wires.
I hope he'll be happy when he sees the result, but mostly I hope he'll keep it that way!