Organizing challenge-Kitchen space

This week's organizing challenge takes us to the kitchen. I don't know why our kitchen gets so unorganized when we built in so many features when we remodeled the kitchen nearly 10 years ago to maximize the organization of it. The worst clutter catcher happens to be the kitchen island. It measures 4' x 8' and becomes the surface that catches everything.

One of the features that I love the most about it is the reflectiveness of the granite. When everything is cleared off and it is shining I love how the tile work reflects in the granite, this is the main reason to keep it all cleared off as much as possible.

I like #7 of Angie at EasyLivingMom tips for ending clutter that she shared about clearing counters daily. She says "if you get in the habit of clearing your counters every night you will not run into a situation where you have so much clutter to clean that you don't know where to start." I am going to set that as my goal for this space. I love to see it all shiny and beautiful.

The pull out shelves of the pantry makes it so easy to see everything that I have in there. When we designed the pantry we made the shelves of varying heights. The top shelves are farther apart to accommodate taller items such as boxes of cereal and jars that hold my spaghetti etc and as the shelves go downwards they are arranged to hold shorter items such as canned goods, in this way we maximized how much we could store in this area. It does get a little bit out of sorts when I am not on top of putting everything away where it is supposed to go.

I did a good clean up and organizing of this area by putting like items with like and discarding out of date items and consolidating other items. It didn't take all that long and now I can see what I have plenty of and what I need to put on my grocery shopping list for the next run to the store.

I also have a problem with this corner of the counters getting clogged with clutter.

I moved everything off first of all and gave it a good scrubbing and then put the minimum back.

It's looking good for now. I will have to see how it works out.

I still have 3 more areas that I want to work on when I can get back to it and those areas are the lazy Susan that holds the Tupperware items and small appliances, under the sink with the cleaning products and last is the cabinet under the microwave where the blender, extra jars and odds and ends get put when there isn't a home for them else where.

I hope you enjoyed my reorganizing post and if you would vote for me on The New Year's Organizing Revolution I would really appreciate it. My number is 7. Thank you. Have a good week.

Office reorganization

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2013 is to move forward. What do I mean by that? Simply to do whatever the next step(s) is or are to move forward rather than to sit back and to let whatever happen happen. On a personal level that means to actively pursue those activities that will help me grow, be ready and prepared for whatever challenges I might face. One way that I can do that is to get myself and all the household stuff organized. So I joined the New Year's Organizing Revolution Challenge. This week's challenge was to organize some area of our office. You know that area that becomes the paper pile up center. I confess I had to start this early to accommodate my travel plans but I did manage to get this area under control. I am pleased with the efficiency and pleasure I have found in being able once again to work in this space without the stress of seeing every thing I needed to do glaring at me every time I sat down to blog or spend some time on the Internet.

This photo is what I saw everytime I passed the door to my office. What a mess. I never wanted to enter the room.

My office also doubles as a guest room on occasion unfortunately the day bed gets over run with clutter and is not inviting.

This area also becomes a clutter gathering spot

and because of all the clutter in front of the closet I couldn't get into it to put things away or to retrieve things when needed.

The top of my filing cabinet also became a heap of clutter.

This stand is where most of the work waited to be organized. This is all the papers that needed sorted, filed and dealt with in some manner

along with the run over onto my desk. This was just the pile on the left side of the desk.

Here is the pile on the right side, this is the pile that required immediate attention, such as bills and other items.

Now the day bed is pretty and functional.

I can get into my closet and I was even able to find some space to store some of those things that were sitting on the floor that did not have a home.

I made the top of my file cabinet my grandma's brag station. I have photos of my grand-daughters there and will be able to add some of my grandson as soon as he decides it is time to join us.

This is a shot of my desk. I have done some more editing of it since this photo was taken.

This stack of papers is what was left with that needed to be sorted and filed, many of the items where things that needed to be entered into the corresponding computer files. This is part of the organizing process that you won't see much change in except that the paper trail either got shredded or filed as appropriate once I dealt with them. They have all been dealt with, finally.

Here at my desk I now see that I need to do some additional organizing of the cork board. It is amazing what you see in a photo that you don't notice in person.

I like what I see as I pass the doorway of my office now.

My inbox is cleaned out and all that is on my list is this organizing challenge.

I hope that you have enjoyed seeing what I was able to accomplish in my office. This has been long over due and I plan not to let my office get to the before stage again. I know that with the health issues that I had been dealing with that I let everything else that seemed challenging go and I can't allow myself to get so far behind with my office work again. This new year will be the year of keeping up with all the hard stuff. If I can deal with tough health issues I can deal with clutter.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

This is in honor of all of my family and friends who have served and/or are serving now in any branch of the military, especially for any who have been away from home and loved ones over Christmas.

Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone, in a one bedroom house made of plaster and stone.
I had come down the chimney with presents to give, and to see just who in this home did live.
I looked all about, a strange sight I did see, no tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.

No stocking by mantle, just boots filled with sand, and on the wall pictures of far distant lands.
With medals and badges, awards of all kinds, a sobering thought came to my mind.
For this house was different, so dark and so dreary, the home of a soldier, now I could see clearly.

The soldier lay sleeping, silent, alone, curled up on the floor in this one bedroom home.
The face was so gentle, the room in such disorder, not how I pictured a United States soldier.
Was this the hero of whom I'd just read?
Curled up on a poncho, the floor for a bed?

I realized the families that I saw this night, owed their lives to these soldiers who were willing to fight.
Soon round the world, the children would play, and grownups would celebrate a bright Christmas day.
They all enjoyed freedom each month of the year, because of the soldiers, like the one lying here.

I couldn't help wonder how many lay alone, on a cold Christmas eve in a land far from home.
The very thought brought a tear to my eye, I dropped to my knees and started to cry.
The soldier awakened and I heard a rough voice, "Santa don't cry, this life is my choice; I fight for freedom, I don't ask for more, my life is my God, my country, my corps."
The soldier rolled over and soon drifted to sleep, I couldn't control it, I continued to weep.
I kept watch for hours, so silent and still, and we both shivered from the cold evening's chill.

I didn't want to leave on that cold, dark, night, this guardian of honor so willing to fight.
Then the soldier roller over, with a voice soft and pure, whispered, "Carry on Santa, it's Christmas day, all is secure."
One look at my watch, and I knew he was right.
"Merry Christmas my friend, and to all a good night."

by Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt

Thank you to all the soldiers far and near this Christmas Eve who have defended our country to preserve our freedom. May God bless you and keep you safe in His loving arms. You are my heros.

I worked hard all day yesterday to get those gifts done that I am making for my quilting friends and I must say that I was not very productive. I got one gift done and a second one that is so lame that I have to make another one to replace that one. I messed up somewhere and so now I am really behind. Maybe I can get it right today. I still have 4 to do and I can average 2 a day so I will be working over Christmas to get them done.

Tomorrow I am going to go to see the Nutcracker. My sister-in-law called me and told me about it and asked if I wanted to go. Can you believe that I have never seen the Nutcracker. I am excited to see it but more so to be sharing it with my sister-in-law. The rest of the weekend will be spent finishing up the shopping, wrapping and straightening up the house. I feel very unprepared for Christmas this year.

Well, this is a short post today as I am already behind and I have so much to do. Have a wonderful day and I hope you have plenty of time to get all of your Christmas preparations done stress free.

Wind is howling...

I wonder what today will bring, as I sit down to begin this post the wind is howling outside. Checking the weather it looks like we are in for some rain today. I need to go to town and do some banking so I will do that as soon as I finish this post before it rolls in. Yesterday's trip to Pittsburgh and back was uneventful. The scans were done in a timely manner but then I had to sit for 2 1/2 hours before I saw the dr, when he came in he had tons of questions about my symptoms that I had had which have all since resolved themselves and never did tell me the results of the scans. I was 20 minutes down the road before I realized that we never discussed them. I am scheduled for my next treatment on the 28th so I am sure nothing has changed or that would have been cancelled. Anyways, on the way home I stopped in Cranberry at the Joann's Fabric Store and I picked up 2 Accuquilt Go die cutters. Remember last week I got the fabric cutter, well I have been interested in a couple of their applique shape cutters. Well, this Joanne's had both of them and they were on sale for 25% off. In the future I will have to wait till they go on sale for more because you can't use the store coupons for the Accuquilt products. Bummer, but I am sure that they will put them on sale once in a while for 50% off. I just have to be ready when they do. Anyways, when I got home I went to work cutting out some shapes and just playing around with ideas and I whipped fused up these 2 pieces.

I had the background already prepped to do another Laura Wasilowski inspired design on it and I think the flowers looking like they are blowing away in the wind is so cute. Who knew that today the wind could whip those little flowers into the next county.

For this second piece I cut out a 13" square to lay out some of the shapes that I had cut out onto and came up with this adorable center block for a table runner, I am still weighing in the option to add some cutouts to the beige end pieces but what I really want to do there is some great fancy quilting so if I do add some applique it would be to enhance the quilting instead of the quilting to enhance the applique. It was such great fun. I broke my rule though and had to pay for it. I didn't stop playing with this last night until 10:00 and then I couldn't fall asleep until after 12:30. I heard Jeff come in from his office at 12:30 and still couldn't fall asleep for a while after that. I know better than to do any creative work after 8 PM but I was having sooo much fun. Normally, after a trip to Pittsburgh I am so wiped out that I don't have the energy to do anything so this was a bonus. Today, I am going to work on some Christmas gifts for next week's party for the Sewjourner's group. I need 5 and I know what I want to make so I just have to get them cranked out. It will be fun too (although it won't involve any applique shapes).

I am off to town and then back to work on those gifts so I need to get moving. I pray that you will have a wonderful day and don't get blown away by any howling winds. Be safe and happy this Christmas season.

Road trip...

I have to leave in 5 minutes for Pittsburgh. I am getting scans done today with a follow-up appointment with the doctor afterwards for the results so that I can get my treatment next week. Have a good day and be safe.

Baby quilt is almost finished...

I loaded the baby quilt on Lola yesterday morning and got the majority of it quilted. I have 2 outside borders to do and the inner dark brown border. The center area is all quilted. Here is a shot of the quilt before any quilting and the second photo is detail shot of the quilting in the center blocks and the bottom border.

I think it is really cute. I cut the squares out with my Accuquilt Go cutter and I didn't do very well getting the horses cut out. I cut off all of there heads. So I made sure I got a good horse for the corner stone blocks in the outside border. LOL. Well, I learned that I have to vary my strip cuts so that I get a more varied selection of blocks when the print is a scattered print rather than an all-over print. The die cutter makes cutting out quilt patches really fast and accurate. I cut out all the squares for this quilt in a matter of 15 minutes and it only took me that long because I was demonstrating the machine and what it does to Stephanie and then again to Dan. I was cutting 3 1/2" squares and there wasn't very much fabric waste at all either. I watched some Youtube videos last evening and got some more ideas on how to use the die cutters. I am excited to use it to do a little stash busting and maybe crank out some scrappy quilts or make some kits that can be made up into charity quilts. I am already thinking of some of the other dies that I want to add to my collection like the Dresden plate, the circle, the hexagon, some of the fancy flourishes that Ricky Tims has designed, oh there are so many but for now I am going to enjoy playing with the ones I have. I am going to have lots of fun with this.

I got highlights and lowlights put in my hair yesterday. I snapped a photo of myself which I find hard to do but here it is I hope you can see them.

Today I am going to finish the baby quilt. I have a customer coming over to pick up a few pieces. BTW, I finished the table runner for her. The quilting turned out really nice. (I am having trouble uploading a photo of this. Sorry.)
I am going to clean up the studio again. Every project that I work on causes such a mess in the studio. I have a project to do for Jeff once I get the baby quilt done. He bought a blanket that needs to be cut in half and the edges hemmed, so I want to get that done for him today.

Kate called yesterday and except for some heavy traffic leaving work she had a wonderful birthday. My baby is so grown up and living in Hawaii and traveling the world on her own. She is a beautiful strong young woman. I love you Kate.

I hope that you all are having a wonderful week in preparation of Jesus' birth. We all have so much to be thankful for and the birth of our Savior is the most precious gift we can receive at Christmas. Do not let others steal Christ out of your Christmas. Do not let political correctness take the very reason we celebrate this season out of the season. You wouldn't like to have a big party thrown for your birthday and then be told you weren't allow to attend it, would you? Remember that Jesus is the reason for the season and give Him the rightful spot in your plans and especially in your heart today. I love you all, Merry Christmas.