To the right you can see a slideshow loading of various objects for sale at my Cafepress shop with a design that I am especially pleased by, "Tulips, Let Love Bloom". The colors are bright and cheerful, the design is suitable for Valentine's Day but will last throughout the year. It would be particularly pretty at this cold and dreary time of the year.
There are other designs there too and I particularly love the peace design that I made to honor my father and the love in many languages design. Now if I could just figure out how to promote myself more effectively and more efficiently.
Today we are getting drizzle instead of the rain we really need.
Today is also the day when I deal with re-arranging the Christmas decoration boxes. Every year I plan to do this so that it will make taking everything out and putting it up easier the next time. Every year, I do it again. Some year I may get it "just right". (Then I can die and go to heaven--if I haven't died already before I make this milestone achievement.)
I love the old, old calendar, the one that says the Christmas season ends on Candlemas, February 2. That gives me plenty of time to savor the decorations which do brighten the house during the dreary, short day month of January.
The downside is (why is there always a downside?) that by the time I have everything tucked away again, the rest of the world is getting ready for Valentine's Day... Oh well. Ash Wednesday is usually right around the corner too.
Two Amaryllis buds are starting to bloom on the kitchen counter. These are always so much fun to watch, for they literally change on an almost hourly basis. Another pot has a short bloom stalk--totally unlike all the others I have had which go so high that I have to move them away from the underside of the kitchen cabinets. It will be interesting to see if it just gives up on growing and goes right to blooming.
I am grateful for company for lunch today and cooking a nice meal to share as well as the flowers that will bloom soon.
Showing posts with label organizing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organizing. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Friday, April 25, 2008
More Flowers
The poppies a friend planted last fall in my backyard planter box are growing and producing buds. Since the weather is finally warming up again, I am sure there will be flowers soon. I can hardly wait.
Wednesday afternoon I participated in an on-line chat with Cafepress, which is part of it's ongoing training for shopkeepers. It is fun, although slow, because the input loads slowly. This weeks chat was about social networking to promote oneself.
A yes, self-promotion, the thing I do least well. Partly it is the fault the fact that I much prefer to play with designing than selling and promoting and partly it is because everything changes so fast and I do not move or think as fast as I once did.
In addition to waiting for the flowers--the rose bushes are budding too and I hope they will wait to burst forth until my favorite photographer returns home from college in a little over a week--I am revisiting my past life. Three boxes of books went away to a friend's yard sale--I hope they do not return. More are lined up to go on Amazon for sale soon. The house will breathe again. (It is, after all, a pretty house.) Too many interests, too little time. Books on religion, history, smocking (yes smocking) and more books. I am keeping the core of my mystery library--I will read those again, knitting books, sewing books, cookbooks (probably about 500 of these) and gardening books. Old computer books were gotten rid of last summer--no point in keeping Win 98 books around when there are no Win 98 computers left in the house.
With the help of my friend C the books will go away and the ones that are left will be organized. Heaven on earth! Books and organization. (And yes, I do have books on organization, too. Sigh. Did I ever see a book I didn't want? Rarely. Amazon would love me if I could buy all the books on my wish list--but aside from the fact that, fortunately, I can't afford to do that, there wouldn't be any space in the house left to use them! Or to turn around, for that matter.
I look forward to a good weekend exploring some of this net self-promotion, setting up the first books to sell on Amazon and making banana muffins from a recipe that a friend gave me last week that will contain flaxseed meal. The first such and I expect them to be yummy. It was a good week. I am grateful.
Wednesday afternoon I participated in an on-line chat with Cafepress, which is part of it's ongoing training for shopkeepers. It is fun, although slow, because the input loads slowly. This weeks chat was about social networking to promote oneself.
A yes, self-promotion, the thing I do least well. Partly it is the fault the fact that I much prefer to play with designing than selling and promoting and partly it is because everything changes so fast and I do not move or think as fast as I once did.
In addition to waiting for the flowers--the rose bushes are budding too and I hope they will wait to burst forth until my favorite photographer returns home from college in a little over a week--I am revisiting my past life. Three boxes of books went away to a friend's yard sale--I hope they do not return. More are lined up to go on Amazon for sale soon. The house will breathe again. (It is, after all, a pretty house.) Too many interests, too little time. Books on religion, history, smocking (yes smocking) and more books. I am keeping the core of my mystery library--I will read those again, knitting books, sewing books, cookbooks (probably about 500 of these) and gardening books. Old computer books were gotten rid of last summer--no point in keeping Win 98 books around when there are no Win 98 computers left in the house.
With the help of my friend C the books will go away and the ones that are left will be organized. Heaven on earth! Books and organization. (And yes, I do have books on organization, too. Sigh. Did I ever see a book I didn't want? Rarely. Amazon would love me if I could buy all the books on my wish list--but aside from the fact that, fortunately, I can't afford to do that, there wouldn't be any space in the house left to use them! Or to turn around, for that matter.
I look forward to a good weekend exploring some of this net self-promotion, setting up the first books to sell on Amazon and making banana muffins from a recipe that a friend gave me last week that will contain flaxseed meal. The first such and I expect them to be yummy. It was a good week. I am grateful.
Monday, February 4, 2008
One Hundredth Post
How quickly time does go by! I can't believe this is actually my one hundredth post. Guess I'm wordy enough after all. Over the weekend I discovered the my squidoo lenses had been languishing and so began fiddling with them. This is fun. The format is good with modules that are reasonably easy to use. The marketing part is always the most difficult.
I also discovered that I had printed out the correct file for my novel after all and now I can do a search for the next section--the Irish famine section. The hard copy is in the living room (part of the clutter) and the computer files are there on the computer. Better organization is needed. A theme of my life.
The weather continues to be colder than normal. The sun shines, but without clouds last night it seems colder. Supposedly it will warm up to near normal by the end of the week and everyone is going to be grateful, I am sure! Still it is good to see that water may not be as much of an issue as it threatened to be. We are still part of nature and dependent on it for so much of our lives.
Now if I could just find out why natural gas has been so expensive this year. I would like to see Congress look at and regulate this, as well as the oil companies. They have the mandate to do so right there in the Constitution. It's time we hold them to it.
Lent begins in two days. A little too soon, but nonetheless, it is going to be Ash Wednesday day after tomorrow.
I also discovered that I had printed out the correct file for my novel after all and now I can do a search for the next section--the Irish famine section. The hard copy is in the living room (part of the clutter) and the computer files are there on the computer. Better organization is needed. A theme of my life.
The weather continues to be colder than normal. The sun shines, but without clouds last night it seems colder. Supposedly it will warm up to near normal by the end of the week and everyone is going to be grateful, I am sure! Still it is good to see that water may not be as much of an issue as it threatened to be. We are still part of nature and dependent on it for so much of our lives.
Now if I could just find out why natural gas has been so expensive this year. I would like to see Congress look at and regulate this, as well as the oil companies. They have the mandate to do so right there in the Constitution. It's time we hold them to it.
Lent begins in two days. A little too soon, but nonetheless, it is going to be Ash Wednesday day after tomorrow.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday is Shelf Day
Two out of three of the shelves are up! Hooray!, hooray! This is so encouraging. The studio will really evolve and I will be able to play in there. My dear friend L accomplished this feat and brought coffee as well.
The largest sunflower head has disappeared. I notice its absence as I peer out my office windows. Has it fallen off or has it had help? I will have to take a closer look at the back yard. I had been wondering if it was time to ask someone to cut it for me so that I could save the seeds to feed the hungry critters in colder weather. Looks like somebody may have helped her/himself knowing that I am an old pushover and will buy more!
Today I switched wheelchairs. I have two. The seats sag over time because I spend so much time in them and because I am, unfortunately, rather larger than I would like to be. Gotta work on that. Fortunately, a neighbor of mine knows how to do the repairs and I have found a place on line to buy the parts from. More slow but steady progress.
Wheelchairs should be covered by Medicare, but it is interesting how much run around one can get to actually get this done. I have paid "rent" on a chair from my own pocket and paid substantially more for a used chair than I should ever have paid. Again, I have simply bought one out of pocket to avoid the above racket. I am not sure how Medicare actually does things--I don't have the patient to wade through the regulations or to wait for hours on the phone to find out that I can't get an answer to my question.
I would like to see health care reform as much as anyone in this country. More, perhaps than many others, who have no problems with their health care. I would like to see health care cost the same for everyone, have simple claim forms and be subsidized by the government for those who truly can't pay the full amount. I do feel strongly that we should all value health care enough to pay something for it. That is the beginning of what I would like to see. I will blog more in later posts, I am sure.
Today is the Feast of St. Augustine. Doctor of the Church and necessary author for Western Civilization classes--and so much more. I should probably re-read Augustine at about this point in my life and see if I have the same reactions that I had forty years ago.
The largest sunflower head has disappeared. I notice its absence as I peer out my office windows. Has it fallen off or has it had help? I will have to take a closer look at the back yard. I had been wondering if it was time to ask someone to cut it for me so that I could save the seeds to feed the hungry critters in colder weather. Looks like somebody may have helped her/himself knowing that I am an old pushover and will buy more!
Today I switched wheelchairs. I have two. The seats sag over time because I spend so much time in them and because I am, unfortunately, rather larger than I would like to be. Gotta work on that. Fortunately, a neighbor of mine knows how to do the repairs and I have found a place on line to buy the parts from. More slow but steady progress.
Wheelchairs should be covered by Medicare, but it is interesting how much run around one can get to actually get this done. I have paid "rent" on a chair from my own pocket and paid substantially more for a used chair than I should ever have paid. Again, I have simply bought one out of pocket to avoid the above racket. I am not sure how Medicare actually does things--I don't have the patient to wade through the regulations or to wait for hours on the phone to find out that I can't get an answer to my question.
I would like to see health care reform as much as anyone in this country. More, perhaps than many others, who have no problems with their health care. I would like to see health care cost the same for everyone, have simple claim forms and be subsidized by the government for those who truly can't pay the full amount. I do feel strongly that we should all value health care enough to pay something for it. That is the beginning of what I would like to see. I will blog more in later posts, I am sure.
Today is the Feast of St. Augustine. Doctor of the Church and necessary author for Western Civilization classes--and so much more. I should probably re-read Augustine at about this point in my life and see if I have the same reactions that I had forty years ago.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Friday, decluttering
It is Friday again! TGIF! The whole week seemed super short. Yesterday I could actually see my whole dining room table! Wow. A sea of clean and people gathered round eating. The house is so pretty and spacious when it is decluttered.
Why do we clutter? Why do we hang on to things? Why do I clutter? Why do I have such a hard time letting go?
Some of the answer is inertia. Time goes by. I am busy, preoccupied, tired or spending so much time knitting (with the tv on) or at the computer that I don't notice the clutter. I don't notice the dishes piled unwashed in the sink until something begins to smell in the sink. Then I have a great washing up day and get it all clean. (In between these events, I wash items as I need them.) I do the laundry when it is time for my housecleaner to come and I know that I will need to have clean sheets so that she can change the bed for me, something that, in my wheelchair and with the spaces in my house, I cannot do.
I could say that I am disabled and it is harder for me to keep things free of clutter, but I don't even want to begin to use that as an excuse! Ok, sometimes I need to keep some things within easy reach. That need could be solved by better organization.
I tend to clutter more when I am feeling overwhelmed or depressed and then the clutter is confusing and depressing, so it seems that it is important to keep things straightened up to some extent.
Not having enough time is an excuse I use all of the time, but then I waste time looking for things that have been in my hand just recently! It would save time to be organized. Take time to do the things at hand. (My father always used to say, "Do the five minute jobs when they first come up." That way they wouldn't become thirty minute jobs while one back tracks and figures out where everything is, who needs to be contacted, etc.)
A friend suggested looking at the house and thinking about what I want to use the spaces for. That approach is working and I will continue to do so.
My "big room" or studio is also my "happiness room" because it so pretty. I hope to finish putting everything away in the next week. it is a space to retreat to and will soon be a space to use for creative projects.
Now I need to find the one thing that I really need that I can't find from decluttering the dining room table yesterday!
Why do we clutter? Why do we hang on to things? Why do I clutter? Why do I have such a hard time letting go?
Some of the answer is inertia. Time goes by. I am busy, preoccupied, tired or spending so much time knitting (with the tv on) or at the computer that I don't notice the clutter. I don't notice the dishes piled unwashed in the sink until something begins to smell in the sink. Then I have a great washing up day and get it all clean. (In between these events, I wash items as I need them.) I do the laundry when it is time for my housecleaner to come and I know that I will need to have clean sheets so that she can change the bed for me, something that, in my wheelchair and with the spaces in my house, I cannot do.
I could say that I am disabled and it is harder for me to keep things free of clutter, but I don't even want to begin to use that as an excuse! Ok, sometimes I need to keep some things within easy reach. That need could be solved by better organization.
I tend to clutter more when I am feeling overwhelmed or depressed and then the clutter is confusing and depressing, so it seems that it is important to keep things straightened up to some extent.
Not having enough time is an excuse I use all of the time, but then I waste time looking for things that have been in my hand just recently! It would save time to be organized. Take time to do the things at hand. (My father always used to say, "Do the five minute jobs when they first come up." That way they wouldn't become thirty minute jobs while one back tracks and figures out where everything is, who needs to be contacted, etc.)
A friend suggested looking at the house and thinking about what I want to use the spaces for. That approach is working and I will continue to do so.
My "big room" or studio is also my "happiness room" because it so pretty. I hope to finish putting everything away in the next week. it is a space to retreat to and will soon be a space to use for creative projects.
Now I need to find the one thing that I really need that I can't find from decluttering the dining room table yesterday!
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