We are still re-organizing things! I feel like, “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie”, once you start, it just kinda snowballs.
This was my calendar page today, it made me smile:
Tag: organized (page 3 of 3)
The past two days we have done some serious purging in our house. This has been our second major clean out of the year since we attacked the attic.
This time we attacked the kitchen and pantry. You can now clearly see the floor in our pantry and actually walk in without having to hold on to the door jam to get what you need or balance mixing bowls on your knee to get the bowl you are really after. It is AMAZING!
All of our cookbooks are now lined up on one shelf, well almost one shelf, we ran out of room and had to move to the next shelf. I have a thing about cookbooks, they just kind of jump into my hands.
We had 2 big trips to the recycling center and 3 big trips to the Charity shop (it sounds scarier then it is, we walk, so it would have been one round trip in a car). It feels good to purge, to clean, to simplify. Everything just feels brighter and refreshened.
I think that removing the clutter, removes some of the stress from day to day living. We have made a pledge to simplify this year and to make sure that we can eat at our dinner table at night, which is not always easy as Mr. Michie normally has a lot of papers to grade and that is his easiest place to work. But, we are working with that to make our lives easier, more enjoyable and our home life a little more stress free.
After working all day it is nice to come home to a house that is organized (at least semi-organized) and things are easier to get to, so you can enjoy them more and enjoy your house more. As Martha Stewart says, “Its a good thing!”
We had a really fun weekend this weekend. We worked hard and we played hard. We tried a new recipe on Friday. I read the wonderful Katie at the Kichen Door blog and she featured this recipe on butter-roasted cinnamon chicken:
We really enjoyed it, but there are a few changes we would make, a bit more cinnamon to make it a little warmer and I thought about adding either some golden raisins or some chopped dried apricots or both to make it a bit more moorish!
The crunch of the almonds was a nice addition to the softness of the chicken and the wheat.
Saturday after running a few errands we went on a date! Mr. Michie took me to see Les Miserables. I saw it last year for the first time on the stage with my theatre buddy. It was wonderful. We both truly enjoyed it. Then, he took me on a date to one of our favourite little Irish pubs.
Mr. Michie had the sausage and mash:
and I had the steak and guinness pie:
Happiness!
Sunday morning it was freezing. I got a hot chocolate before we went grocery shopping:
After shopping and some brunch, we put on our work clothes and got to it. We cleaned our attic. That might not sound like a big deal, but for two people, we have a lot of stuff. It was really just more boxes up there then anything else. Well, that and all of our Christmas things. I have so much Christmas stuff, that Mr. Michie says one day the ceilings will fall down because of it and we will be covered in Christmas!
My coat got caught in the door and the button broke and since I had already used my spare, it was a trip to the haberdashery for more. I chose these and spent a bit of the early evening sewing them on. I like them, they give my coat a more vintage appearance.
For dinner we used the pizza dough recipe again from Annie’s Eats and made her Chicken Ranch Pizza, but put a few more veggies on it. It was delicious. We feasted on the couch and finally got caught up on the first season of Once! Now, I can’t wait to start the second!
For dessert it was hot chocolate and junior mints (a gift from my mom), a little Sunday night treat. This morning the snow didn’t come quickly enough, so off to school we go. I am still doing my snow dance, I hope to have just one snow day this term, they are so much fun.
We go back to school today and after such a long break, I am not sure I am ready. I just need a few more days in my house, hanging out, reorganizing and listening to good music with my Christmas lights on.
I can’t bear to take my lights down yet, so they will be up a little while longer, it is so nice as the nights close in early to have the den filled with the twinkle and glow of lights, it makes it a happier space.
We have already completed a few reorganizing projects since we have gotten back from the States. We cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and the drawers. We bought some new storage containers to put things in. It is silly, I know, but when I open my drawers now, they just make me happy because everything is in its place. I also de-cluttered one section of my closet and have items to use as dust rags, items to be turned into a sewing project and items that are going to Oxfam.
We tried a new pizza dough recipe Sunday night and it was delicious. I found it on the Annie’s Eats blog and is definitely going in our repertoire of dough recipes. Mr. Michie liked it so much, he cut the crust off a piece, just to eat the crust, he never does that!
I have a few things planned this week, that should make it fly by, but I am already ready for Friday night again, when I can just be with Mr. Michie. I am going to have to wear my pajamas inside out and do a snow dance and pray hard for at least one snow day this term, I am going to need it! Just to have one more day, curled up under blankets with my twinkle lights, Christmas music and a hot chocolate.
{image found here}
I have no image for today. I have been under-the-weather this weekend and it has carried through into the week.
I did a little blog “cleaning” over the weekend, there is still a few more things to do. I took away my Christmas designs and went back to the usual “Jenny Wren” look. I have done a little of that in the cottage as well. Things were organized and straightened, a few things put back in order, but still things to be done, it will get done in time.
I celebrated Epiphany on Friday night with a Christmas movie and a cheese pizza, surrounded by the glow of my Christmas lights. They are still up, I can hear you gasp, but I can’t bear to take them down yet, it is too dark outside still, I need the coziness inside.
We went into Marylebone on Sunday as Mr. Michie wanted to get me out of the house for a bit and one particular street we wandered down was littered with Christmas trees, all lined up against their coal black railings to be taken away by the bin men.
It made me sad to see. Christmas is over! The seasons change and so with it, do we. I will get around to taking my ornaments down, I have a few paper whites to plant that will bring a little sunshine to the cottage, but that along with my Christmas lights, will just have to wait for the weekend…
I just love it! And, I love the fact that they list their books in the credits too!
Is this week over already? I am ready for it to be and it is only Tuesday! I got my biggest order yet from RosaBlue and I have been busily cutting away felt, embroidering pockets and faces on bears and bunnies, ironing wrens on fabric labels…
I am just trying to take it slow, to do them in color batches, so I don’t get overwhelmed. Between trying to keep the household chores up, take care of this order, go to work and prepare for my new job (in which I am doing the “handover” this week), I am endeavouring to keep my head above water.
But, when I feel overwhelmed and nothing seems to be getting accomplished, I take some “Jack Byrnes Wisdom” and I step back, take a deep breath, take a break and go back to it in a little while. It will all get accomplished, not everything all at once, maybe not as quickly as I intended or how I planned and organized it, but in the end it will all get done.
So, right now, I am just focusing on keeping my head above water, I’ve always liked a good challenge, so I am more than ready to take this on….
(Image: Esther Williams found on Flickr)
I am trying to get organized in our house this weekend. The Spring Fever Bug has bit me! So today I am cleaning and getting the house ready to go into the weekend, so tomorrow I can tackle the pantry.
The pantry is not only a place for food storage, but living in a little cottage it has taken on the role of having bookshelves packed with books, holding my cleaning supplies and most importantly all my sewing bits and bobs.
It has gotten quite messy at the moment since I have been in the throws of creating bears and bunnies and now when you open the door you just hold your breath. It is like those can of snakes, you pop the lid and they all come shooting out, well, when I open that door, I am waiting for everything to come shooting out at me! (it is not that bad I am being a bit melodramatic, or am I?)
So, I have donned my June Cleaver pearls and I am going to wax my way out the door to go grocery shopping. Tonight we are making bean burritos with queso sauce and making my sister’s guacamole, yumm!
(apron image from Stitch Thru Time)