A Great Quote

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." Hellen Keller

Finishing Projects IS Simplying!

Here is the fam lounging on the large pillows I made. The front is made from decorator fabric and the back is made from a fuzzy blanket.



This is the cushion made for the plowman's chair in the den. The front is decorator fabric and the back is plain brown fabric. I made ties to hold it in place. We are making covered buttons to put on the cushion to finish it.



These are two small 16x16 pillows made out of the leftover fuzzy blanket.



Lastly I made 3 curtains out of the decorator fabric, backed with plain brown fabric and edged with brown cording.



I had no patterns for any of the home stuff I am doing. I prefer to work without patterns and just figure it out as I go along.

4 Priorities

It seems that everyone is touting having 4 priorities that you focus your attention on:

Zen Habits

Far Beyond the Stars

Live It With Less - The Big 4

So I have been doing a lot of thinking about my big 4.

Right now, I am concentrating less on what I ultimately want to do, and more on what will get me there, therefore my big 4 for the month of May is:

1. Get the girls' promoted to 3rd grade (they are due to graduate to 2nd, but their teacher agrees with me they would be bored in 2nd and do better in 3rd)- so far I have met with their teacher, who gave her blessing and recommended that I meet with the principal. I have emailed the principal and intend to call her tomorrow. I understand they don't have a history of skipping students, but I think my girls deserve to be in a class that challenges them.

2. Finish all projects in the home that I am responsible for and continue decluttering. I have finished all the pillows, curtains, and cushions for the den. I am waiting for my husband to help me finish making the covered buttons and once I sew those on, the den is done. I have cut and started sewing the kitchen curtains. I have cut the curtains, shams, and roll pillow covers for the bedroom. I hope to have all this sewn tonight. Then all I will have to do is paint our family tree painting. I am decluttering each day, never purging less than 5 items a day. Husband is collecting them all in the garage for an upcoming garage sale.

3. Get work in order. Ugh. This is the one I am dreading. Due to a family emergency and several doctor appointments last week, I have only been at work less than 2 days in the last 2 weeks. I have errands to run in the morning and intend to stay a little later each day this week to try to catch up.

4. Blog. I want to keep this blog up to date as much as possible, not just to track my progress on simplifying, but also to document my recent art projects, home projects, and general goings on. I have a tendency to start and not finish and I want to make this blog a priority..

Now onto sewing! The faster I get this stuff done, the faster I can get to organizing and decluttering, which is much more fun right now!

30 Days to a Simpler Life Challenge

30 Days to a Simpler Life by Connie Cox and Cris Evatt

There are multiple challenges out there like the Neil Armstrong Approach by 365 Less Things and the 10 Things Challenge by Simple. Organized. Life.. Of course, there is the 100 Things Challenge which has been followed by people having less and less things- some people having less than 50. That challenge has caused a lot of drama about the blogosphere.

I personally can't get anywhere close to having less than 100 things. I have over 200 books just on the tiny bookshelf in my bedroom. I could give away one thing a day or 10 things a week, but I decided to try a new approach that will involve more than just giving X number of things away in a certain time frame.

Tomorrow I'll start Day One. Today I read the intro chapters- "Before You Begin" and "Simplifying Your Life Day by Day".

"On your journey, you will let go of things that are stressful, distracting, and uncomfortable. You will keep what brings joy, contentment, and a sense of well being. Simplicity is about achieving a higher level of comfort. Simplicity is about eliminating the excess so you will be free to discover who you really are."

This resonated more with me, because it specifies what I will keep. I don't want to keep everything, but neither do I want to give it all away. I just want to eliminate the excess and pare down my possessions to what I love and need.

In the intro chapters, the authors identify several benefits of simplifying, most of which you surely know:
* Saving time
* Saving money
* Encouraging creativity
* Organization
* Better for the environment
* Peace of mind
* Allowing you to focus on what is important

They coin "The Five Types of Simplifiers-Serene, Comfort-Seeking, Downshifted, Elegant, and Organized Simplifiers". I definitely identified most with the Comfort-Seeking and Downshifted. I do identify a bit with the Serene, but I love color and I don't mind decor. I don't want a sparse cold space. I prefer a warm inviting environment. I love red, blues, pinks, and earth tones. I'm not a partier and don't socialize much. I am much more of a homebody. While I don't like a lot of noise, I do like to be surrounded by family and those noises are happy.

I mostly want a comfortable, happy space, that is more environmentally friendly. I like the simpler things like walking to the corner store for a snack or drink. Lying on a blanket outside reading a book while the kids play.

I've been purging for over a month at least. I have boxes and bags of stuff in the garage that my husband is convinced he can sell in a garage sale. Today I went through my socks, shorts, and bedroom dresser tops to create a pile. Tomorrow I start Day One, which is to fill up a bag of stuff. I already have a nice bit to put in and am sure I'll come up with more tonight. The hardest item was a large glass paperweight thingie with glass fish in it. My son gave it to me for a holiday when we lived in Miami. I know he wouldn't care now, but the little boy who gave it to me would be devastated if he were to see it in the give-away pile.

I am really wresting with some personal stuff - uncertainty about the future- which is making it hard to know what I should get rid of. I think I will probably simplify for the life I am leading today and store what I can't imagine giving away (due to future possible change) in the attic. Once those issues are resolved, I will know whether to get rid or keep those things.

The roses are blooming...

First, I had no idea they would be white. I suppose I should have asked. I just assumed they would be red.

It was my idea to plant climbing roses to go over the arch of the front doorstep, but I didn't go with my husband to pick them out.

It was so lovely to go out the door this morning and see all the blooms. I enjoyed them as I sat on the stoop waiting for the bus this morning with the girls.

How they have grown...

They grow so fast.

Harriet is the fluffy one on the far left.

My husband is almost done with the chicken run/coop he is building outside. He is building it as a part of the playset. I am hoping that the offer of free eggs will make the neighbors forgiving of any additional noise the chickens make once we move them from the garage. I put Harriet on the ground today and she chirped incessantly and loudly. I can't imagine that they are going to be quiet neighbors. Fortunately, I am teaching one of the next door neighbors' children and I give him a ride to school every day so Mom doesn't have to get out. I hope that garners us enough favor not to warrant complaints, since livestock is against the HOA.

My friend says I worry too much about what other people think. Probably.

Frosted Shredded Mini Wheats

FSMW is my favorite cereal. Winn Dixie just had a "buy one get one free" sale on this cereal, which made it $2.08 a box. I ended up with close to 40 boxes after 3 trips, causing me a slight storage problem in the pantry. I have eaten it every day for over two years, so I figure this is a wise investment.

When I saw this, I knew I had to make one...



Found here.

Gorgeous Bag!

I'm in lust right now on every level.

Found here.

Field Trip

The preschool went on a field trip to the zoo. I was attacked by loads of lorakeets.

One tried to drink my Diet Coke.


I had great fun spending time with the moms and grammies.


I had even more fun watching my students have fun!


It was the best field trip I have been on so far, thanks to a tip from a teacher. She told me at the last field trip to just post an itinerary of where I would be when, so I didn't have to stress about making everyone happy. Everyone just did their own thing, and a key few hung with me. Much better!

A New Gnome!

I thought I'd first introduce you to our oldest gnomes. This is Felix. Somewhere on the internet there is a video of Felix being dropped by a teenage girl during a scavenger hunt type youth group activity. He is a little worse for the wear, but he can still stand if propped in a corner.


The second gnome we acquired was Griffin. He's been the baby until yesterday...


My new sweetie pie... He totally called to me while I was innocently browsing fabric. His name is Reuben. He wanted me to buy his brother, Rupert, but Rupert was riding a frog and didn't have a book in his hands. I admit, I have a soft spot for bookworms. So Reuben came home. I am still thinking of Rupert. Not sure how hubby would react to two new gnomes in one week though...


This was just a perfect project box. I have a pretty pink floral lunch box that my sil gave me for my birthday one year, and it often holds whatever project I am working on.

New Darth Copier sign

Quote courtesy of my husband:

A Birthday Gift for my Mom

You know you live in the South when you see something like this...

Caught this sight while cruising around last Friday...

I always feel like somebody's watchin' me...

The eyes happened by accident as I was transporting leftover Easter egg decorating stickers in my purse. I added the mouth because it does actually talk to me on occasion...

My Favorites Sites... oops, I meant Sights

When I hit the driveway each day, these are my favorite things to see:


The dogwood that is always filled with birds clamoring about the feeder:


The azaleas and my gnome friends:


The birdhouse Tab painted:


The birdhouse Tris painted:


The wisteria bush that blooms for oh, so short a time:


The climbing roses we planted last year have almost made the arch and are ready to bloom:

Purging

I am (despite my pathological need to buy books...and yarn, if we are being really honest) doing my best to downsize, simplify, and purge. This bookshelf is in dire need of rearranging. When the books start piling on the top it is time to rearrange. Unfortunately I don't think there is a single purge on the shelf right now. Most are newly aquired from garage sales and the thrift store and haven't been read yet.

I did get rid of two lunch boxes, 2 zipper bags, and a bread pan, and threw away a bunch of paper today. Yesterday I cleaned out a large part of the medicine cabinet and the magazine basket in the bathroom. Today I focused mostly on cleaning out my work bag and purse. I'll keep you updated on my purge progress.

Darth Copier

We got a new copier at the church. I think it looks big and scary, so I named it Darth Copier. My pastor made the sign, because he's just like that!

Vegetarian Daughters

New snack bag art! I forgot to photograph yesterday's bag.


I was giving the teen a lecture on social responsibility and if he was truly concerned with doing the right thing, he would go vegetarian since the amount of grain it takes to feed one cow could feed thousands of people, not to mention the environmental benefits and health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Apparently, the only ones listening were the twins in the backseat.

I was a vegetarian when I met my hubby, but got tired of cooking two meals every night so I finally gave in and became an omnivore (and in the process gained a bit of weight). So when the girls decided to give up meat, I thought what better motivation for me to jump start my diet.

However, I wasn't thinking about the school lunches. I do not trust that they offer sufficient nutrition for a vegetarian, so we have gone back to packing lunches. We went veggie on Sunday and haven't had any meat since.

It took awhile to figure out some good options for snack and lunch. So far we have had for snack:
1. Apple and juice box
2. Almonds and juice box
3. Cereal bar and juice box

So far for lunch we have had:
1. Mac and cheese, dried fruit, boiled peanuts
2. Cheese pizza, carrots and fat free ranch dressing, fresh strawberries
3. Blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese, grapes, yogurt

I am hoping this isn't just a fad for them, because I can see cooking two meals when it isn't just me that is eating the meat-free version.

Garage sales, sewing, and game night, oh my!

We got up early this morning to start off our garage sale shopping season. We love garage sales. This is the primary way I get new clothes for the girls and occassionally I get a nice find or two for myself. Thad usually gets a gadget or two as well.
We got a couple of things for the house:
This beauty, we intend to hang in the dining room. We have just the empty space for it.

These baskets fit so perfectly with our decor we couldn't pass them up. Thad thinks we should fill them with peat moss, potting soil and plants and hang them out front. I'm undecided.



Of course I found some books. And the sale benefitted a local library, so I was glad to oblige with some books for me and some for the girls.

Tris had to spend her hard earned money on this and a video game. They had great fun playing darts on the garage door once they figured out it was magnetic.

Tab was lured in by this marionette tiger.

We got several clothing items (great brands) for the girls this summer and this cute little bench to sit in front of their window. They can use it for overflow toys.


I got a beautiful silver tiny tea set that I just really wanted. The lady seemed upset to part with it for $5 but she finally did. I envision pretend tea parties with the girls outside this summer.


As part of my effort to destress my life, I finished a project that had been nagging at me. I finally sewed the cushion for our plowman's chair. I still have to add buttons, but it looks pretty nice. You can see it matches the pillows I made weeks ago that the teen is using to sheild himself from the camera.




Tonight consitituted our first official Family Game Night. I had bought Blokus for 4 players. We had a blast except Thad got mad at me when I kept heckling him even after I got out of the game. Hence the angry face. It was nice when the teen voluntarily joined in the game....


For Christmas, my mom gave the girls a butterfly habitat. Hubby pulled it down to order the cocoons. Right after he sent off the request, the girls found dozens in the yard...

13 chicks, 2 cats, a dog, 3 kids, 2 parents and a tank of fish walk into a bar...

So clearly we are up to 13 chicks. My husband had a coupon, headed back to the tractor store, and came home with 7 more chicks. We have 2 black, 6 brown, and 5 yellow chicks. Two of the new ones are Harriet and Manuel, though I can only tell who Harriet is because she is the tiniest. Muffin (the pup) thinks they look like so much fun to play with, and consequently must be kept away from them so she doesn't stress them out with her incessant barking.

So far all I've done is feed them and talk to them. I brought down a book from the craft room that I bought a long time ago and never managed to read:

Hopefully I will make time to read it and it will contain some usable information as well as a nice story...

I should have seen it coming when hubby insisted on getting this off the clearance rack at Pier I.