What Was I Thinking?!

Today I decided to go to town and clean Marshall's room.  I mean like really clean it.  Like, rip everything out of the room, clean the carpets, wash the walls, clean the blinds, hang a curtain rod, make new curtains, etc.

I don't know what I was thinking!!  I must have had a crazy, hormonal-induced, nesting lapse of judgment moment.  I'm sure it was mostly induced by what the room initially looked like.  I mean, look at it!  It's a crazy hot mess!  He must think that every time I say "clean your room," I really mean "go ahead and trash your room some more."

I threw a ton of crap away.  He got so mad at me when he saw I was throwing some old coloring books and Burger King toys away.

After a few hours of de-junking and reorganizing, I finally managed to drag everything out of the room except for the dresser.  Yes, I even pulled the bed out into the hall.  I even dropped a shelf on my foot!  It hurt like crazy, and for a second I thought I'd broken it, but realized that I could walk around after a few moments, so I kept on pushing through it and got the room cleared out.

Mike came home with the Rug Doctor (we own one, but it's been "living" at the shop for the past few weeks) and helped me clean the carpet.  Now the room smells nice, the carpet looks a million times better, and it doesn't look so much like a little boy inhabits it.

Sorry about the poor quality of the "after" picture.  Marshall fell asleep before I could take one with the lights on.  I'm still trying to figure out the placement for a few things, like the baby's crib and my glider and possibly my $7 lamp from IKEA, but other than that the room is organized!  Hoorah!!

I'm hoping to get a curtain rod hung and new curtains made before the baby comes.  Right now we're using a queen sized sheet folded in quarters stuffed in the top of the blinds to keep the light out of the room at night.  It's been working okay for a while, except that it's starting to fall down, and it doesn't look fabulous, and the anal personality in me wants the room to look fabulously perfect.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the crib set up soon, and the glider put back together (we painted it a few weeks ago) with new cushions (which I plan on making this weekend, hopefully).  Then I can focus on cleaning blinds and hanging new curtains.

Being Domestic - sorta

One of the pitfalls of renting a tiny split level home (in a 4-plex) is that there is hardly any room for storage.  We'd have food storage, if we had somewhere to put it.  Our kitchen is small.  Our bedrooms are small.  Every available closet shelf is used for storing things we don't need right now but might/probably need in the future.

In fact, Marshall doesn't even have access to his closet.  It is chock-full of crib parts and baby toys, boxes of clothes he doesn't fit in anymore, and other miscellaneous kid/baby-related items.

The sad thing is, I have gone through every closet in our house (except the linen closet in the hall - it's on my To-Do list) and thrown/given away TONS of things in the 2 1/2 years we've lived here.  I am constantly amazed at how much crap I find to through away each time I do it.  But, now we're at the bottom of the barrel.  I've gotten rid of everything I can think to get rid of.  I honestly about killed myself the last time I went through our storage cupboard under the stairs.  It's the hardest to go through.  You have to drag everything out, go through all the different boxes, then rearrange it and hope you end up with a little more space than you had before.

This process explains why every time food storage items go on sale (or Macey's has a case lot sale) Mike says "No, we don't have anywhere to keep it."  It makes sense, but I forget every year.

So, when we saw that corn was on sale for $14 for 48 ears at our local food co-op, I was surprised when Mike said "Let's do it.  We can freeze it for food storage."

What?!

Who are you and what have you done with my husband?

So that is how we spent this afternoon.  We blanched the ears of corn, took all the kernels off the cob, and bagged them into freezer bags.  I made 21 bags with 1 1/2 cups in it, and 1 bag with 2 cups.  33 1/2 cups of corn, and a newly cleaned out freezer, later, I now have plenty of corn to last me through the winter.  No more spending $1.50 on the cheap generic brand of corn that doesn't have a resealable bag and gets freezer burn 5 seconds after you open the thing.

I can't tell you how proud I am that I've finally done something "domestic" in preparation for winter.  If we had the stuff (and space) to can, I'd probably be doing that like crazy too.  Someday, someday.  When I have a house of my own with its own giant food storage area in the basement, then we'll see how much canning I can get done.  Until then, I'm going to have to be content with putting up corn in the freezer.  :)

I made it!!

So, you know that never ending list I thought there was no way in HELL I'd finish?  Yeah, I finished it!!!!!

Living room clean?  CHECK
Presents wrapped?  CHECK
Mom's present made?  CHECK
Quilted 3 quilts for clients?  CHECK
Bound 3 other quilts for clients?  CHECK
Quilted 2 quilts for SIL?  CHECK
Camera/Camcorder charged & ready?  CHECK

So the only things that didn't get done were the friend presents (They will be "New Year's" cards instead of Christmas cards, probably!) and I didn't quilt/bind the Christmas quilt I made....which is no big deal, because I hadn't planned on them getting done anyway. ;)

This weekend should be fun!  Christmas officially in 5 mins (but present unwrapping happens in T-5 hrs 35 mins).  Breakfast at Lola's house at 7.  Presents with Grandma & Grandpa P at 10.  Lunch & presents with Nana & Pop-pop at 1.

Sunday, church (but who really wants to go to church the day after Christmas?  Yeah, us neither....but we'll probably drag ourselves there for the first hour).

Monday, a little work, then pre-wedding party with the whole fam-damily at my mom's house in SLC.  Dinner at 5.

Tuesday, a little more work, then wedding reception for my cousin at 7:30 at her parents' house in SLC.

Anyone noticing how frequently I'll be driving from Spanish Fork to SLC?  Yeah.....not looking forward to the freeway this weekend, since it's totally ripped up and under construction, but it should be fun once we make it there!

I promise to take lots of pictures and post them!! :)


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Just a Little Stressed

I don't know why I do this to myself, but it seems that I always take on a little more than I can handle every few months.

Like, we're having our Annual Christmas Open House at Sweetbriar on November 4th.  So of course I would like to have some festive projects done in time to display.  Like my Fat Quarterly quilt-along quilt.  It's Christmas fabrics, so it would go perfectly, yes?  That's what I thought! :)

I also want to have my calendar protoype made up.  Yeah, so not going to happen, but I can dream, can't I?  I really would love to have it done.  I've only been working on it for, oh, over a year. 

I've also signed up for NaNoWriMo again.  It starts Nov. 1st.  You're supposed to start working on a new project.  So what does this mean?  That I have 100 pgs written on another project already, with a hopeful 150 pgs or so to go, and I would like to have it finished by the end of this month.

Also, I have 14 quilts at the shop waiting to be quilted, which I would like to have quilted by the end of the month.  1 of them belongs to me.  It's the cable quilt I started earlier this year for a class I took.  I really would like to have it finished by the end of the year.

At least I got my laundry (mostly) folded, and my kitchen cleaned up.  I feel like I'm in a little less of a mess now that the kitchen is clean and the laundry is folded. 

Friday is the Day!

We are getting my parents' old couches on Friday. I am so excited!

I am nervous, though, because my house is in complete and total CHAOS! I have five days to finish organizing everything before my parents come down with the couches. AAAHHH!

To top it all off, I'm so crazy busy at work. At the start of last week I had 30 quilts (24 for clients) that needed to be done. Now, I have 12 or 13. No big deal, right? haha!

So, whaddaya think? Do you think I can balance crazy work with CHAOS at home? I think I can do it. And then, once it's done, I'll be able to finally take pictures! YAY!

I haven't posted a lot lately, and I'm sorry.

I'm currently trying to re-organize my life.

See, I just acquired a whole bunch of furniture from my parents, who no longer needed it. It's going to make my life a lot neater, easier, and more organized....but until I get everything sorted, put away, cleaned and organized life is a little hectic.

How hectic?

Let's just say that my husband asks me what I've done all day, and when I say "I cleaned and organized {insert room here}" he looks at me like I'm crazy. Then I quantify with "But you can only judge me on this section of the room...doesn't it look so much better?" haha He doesn't find it amusing.

So, I promise to post pictures and better posts soon.

In fact, I can guarantee a post in the near future, because I've done a lot of online shopping, and have some really great things to share when I actually get a second to sit down and upload pictures.

Oh, and did I mention that I have 30 quilts at work? 6 are mine, 1 is my MIL's, but the rest are for clients. Yeah, been working late nights again. It feels like December all over! haha

Furniture

I'm getting new furniture on Monday.

Well, it's not new, but it's new to me. My parents are getting rid of some of their furniture, and offered it to us. I'm so excited!!

Of course, this means that I have to move a whole bunch of stuff around, reorganize everything and make space for the new furniture.

I'm getting a secretary desk with bookshelf hutch, a buffet-type piece, a 3-drawer night stand, a tall bookshelf, and a sewing cabinet. I'm so excited for all of these pieces!! (especially the sewing cabinet!!)

I'm going to put the desk and the sewing cabinet in the kitchen/dining area. If my cookbooks fit on the shelves in the secretary hutch, then I'll put them there. I can move some of the books onto the new bookshelf, which is going to go upstairs in our room, and then maybe I can take both of my smaller shelves to work. I'm going to move all of the quilting/crafty books/magazines to work where I can utilize them.

I'm still deciding on the buffet-type piece. I might put it upstairs in our room, but it might go downstairs, too...we'll see. It would match better upstairs, so I'm more inclined to do that.

The 3-drawer night stand is going to in Marshy's room, most likely. I might like it in our room, but if I put it there, I'll need to sand it down and paint it a different color. Well, I'd have to do that for Marshy's room, too, but not necessarily as soon as if it were to be in my room.

Anyway, I'm really excited. Tomorrow I'm going to finish cleaning, moving, organizing, etc. I'll take pictures once everything is redone and the furniture is all in place.

Detour

I was going to sew tonight.

Instead, I decided to reorganize the kitchen cupboards.

I just redid the cupboards at Christmas-time. It amazed me how much stuff I had that was expired by like 4 years. I'm surprised I didn't throw it away the last time I redid the cupboards. But, it's in the trash now :)

I have oodles of room in my cupboards now.... sort of. I was able to clean the top of the fridge off, so now my George Foreman grill resides there, freeing up a teeny tiny bit of counterspace. YAY!

So, now that I've done 5 of my cupboards, I'm going to go sew. Hoping to finally get a finish for OPAM 2010 this month!!