Things that are RED: red polka dot plates

Thanks for your encouragement on my last post! I made progress last night by getting nine sets of rubber stamps listed on eBay, and I'm taking advantage of my sleeping baby right now to photograph some more stuff while the light is good.

One more good reason to clear out my cupboards: to make room for these cute red and white polka dot plates that I got on post-Valentine's clearance at Target last week!

They're salad plate-sized, and won't they look darling heaped with fresh strawberry shortcake?

Getting serious about my Stuff with Peter Walsh

Let me be honest: I am never going to embrace a minimalist lifestyle. I like my Stuff, plain and simple. "Restrained" and "understated" are probably never adjectives that will be used to describe me! All those cutesy decorative signs and stuff that you see in gift shops that say "Simplify" in a swirly sort of script make me giggle, because I will NEVER have one hanging in my home.

That being said, I mentioned the other day that I feel like I'm drowning in my Stuff right now. I still love my Stuff, don't get me wrong--but right now it's taking over and making me unhappy. If you walked into my home right now, you'd never know that while I was growing up, my bedroom was neat and tidy: a place for everything, and everything in it's place. My mom never ever had to get after me to clean my bedroom, and I was always a great college roommate because my side of the room and bathroom was tidy and I cleaned up after myself in the kitchen and common areas.

And then I had kids.

Kids who do not so far seem exhibit those same proclivities toward neatness, making me fear that their father's dominant Messy gene won out in that battle. I'm not blaming my current messiness on my kids (okay, not entirely). The simple fact is that now that I have children, I have more responsibilities in the same amount of time, and something has to give. That something is unfortunately my neatness and organization. I feel like the state of my house is negatively affecting the state of my mental clarity and I'm ready to do something about it.

I picked up Peter Walsh's new book, Lighten Up, at the library a few weeks ago. At first I was disappointed because I felt like the subject matter didn't really apply to me, but then this weekend I took another look and found a statement that really got my attention:

"I'll say this again, too: no matter whether you own or rent your space, you're paying per square foot. Space has value, too. If the stuff in your space is driving you nuts, then step up and do something about it. It won't fix itself on its own. Giving time to what you value is important. When you lose your ability to enjoy a room or to store your car and seasonable items in a tidy garage, you're throwing that portion of your rent or mortgage down the drain." (Lighten Up page 252, emphasis mine)

My Stuff is indeed driving me nuts, and I've lost the ability to enjoy more than one room in my house so this went straight to my heart. In the book, Peter suggests calculating the value of your home ÷ your square footage to get an idea of what each square foot of space in your house is worth. With every square foot full of clutter, you are losing out on usable space in your home and basically throwing that money away! We've been talking a lot about square footage and mortgages lately because we were considering a move, so that concept is very striking to me.

Peter also suggests a schedule for organized living, with a different category each month. The one for March is "Tension Tamer" and the assignment is to choose one area of your home that deserves the greatest amount of attention and focus your energy on that one for the month. Right now, the biggest Stuff monkey on my back is my Etsy/ebay/Craigslist mess. I enjoy selling on Etsy and have plenty of "inventory" that I've picked up but I just can't seem to get going and get it listed. It's ironic, because I've noticed that the more frequently I list, the more I seem to sell (due to Etsy's default search settings). I keep bringing in more Stuff to sell, but I'm not selling at the rate I'm accumulating so I have a huge imbalance and as a result, can't walk around in our home office because of the giant pile in the middle of the floor.

Prompted by Peter, I've made a decision: I'm giving myself until March 31 to deal with my stuff. By "deal with" I mean photograph and list for sale on Etsy, eBay or Craigslist. Whatever is not listed by March 31 gets donated, no matter what! No matter how cute it is, or what it cost, or how sure I am that it will sell--it's gone! During my Tension Tamer challenge, I'm also on a junking freeze (after the trip I have planned tomorrow--I'm shopping for a swap). No more bringing in until I get more out! I'm giving myself a pass on my Christmas items, however, since listing those right now is a waste of money.

This is going to be a big challenge for me! I get 2.5 hours per day of kid-free time per weekday while Maren is at kindergarten and Porter is napping, and any other things I need or want to get done without little helpers has to be done during that time as well, ergo I won't be able to devote that whole time each day to my challenge. I'm hoping that my motivation not to "waste" my stuff by giving it away on April 1 will motivate me to work quickly and efficiently. I'm also planning to be out of town for a week in March, so that's why I'm starting now instead of waiting until March 1--I need every single day I can get for this to work!

I got started yesterday by photographing some rubber stamp sets that I'll be listing on eBay this week. eBay is having a listing special that ends a week from today, so that's even more motivation to get things listed quickly. I know this was lengthy, but I hope by getting it all out there publicly, I'll feel more accountable to get moving and make my challenge a success! Wish me luck!

Valentine's Day decor

I know it's WAY after the fact, but I did want to post photos of this year's Valentine's Day decor, both for my own records and just to share some fun pictures.

Last week, I posted the window I made and mentioned that I wanted to back it with old book pages. It was a project that took me about five minutes and made a big impact! I simply cut a piece of cardboard box to size, sprayed it with spray adhesive and slapped on some old dictionary pages. It's adhered to the back of the window with blue painter's tape so it is easily removable, but it occurs to me now that I could have also cut it to the size of the glass and just wedged it in, eliminating the need for tape.

The window inspired me to use a red, black and white theme for my decorating this year. I used the red honeycomb medallions that I made last year and stuck them into a red and silver vase. I added my red gumball machine that is half-full of white buttons, a few black thrift-store finial-thingies, and at the last minute added a cute vintage-style Valentine take-out box that has a black beaded handle.

For the top of my little dresser, I used a vintage redwork tablecloth, an old red book, and a vintage candy box from an estate sale last summer. I added a bit of black with a neat cameo pin (thrifted, should get a better photo to show a close-up) and a red, black and white folding ruler used to hold up a vintage Valentine from my collection.

I stayed with the color scheme when filling my muffin tin table. Yup, still my favorite piece of furniture in the house!

Back before Christmas I found this darling vintage chalkboard at an antique store, but I've never showed it on my blog because it's hard to get a good photo with the lighting in the room and because there's a big chip in the navy wall paint that I've been too busy/lazy/distracted to fix. I picked out some Valentines that school kids would have exchanged and hung them with tiny clothespins from a length of baker's twine.

Just for fun, I added an old class photo (dated 1938) that I picked up somewhere and suspended it from little metal clips inside a thrifted frame that looks like it's made from old rulers.

I didn't get things decorated until the Friday before Valentine's Day so I'll probably leave them up for another week while I decide what to put up in their place. I got rid of all my St. Patrick's Day stuff (what little there was) because I just can't get really excited about the holiday, plus kelly green just does not go with the paint on my walls! Easter is late in April this year so I have a good month before I'll want put out the bunnies & eggs, so I'll have to do something non-holiday related. There's never a wrong time for aqua pottery so I think I might go that direction.

Lemony Chickpea Dip

Last weekend I had some friends over to chat, make a Valentine and eat yummy food. I wanted to offer some healthy choices alongside the not-so-nutritious options, but my challenge was that I wanted everything to fit within my chosen color palette of red, pink and white. I knew I wanted to offer fresh veggies (red bell peppers, radishes, jicama and grape tomatoes) and some kind of dip, so I turned to a recipe I made quite a while ago and had marked as "yummy + healthy!" It was just as good as I remembered--maybe even better--and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a pinkish-red, so it fit in with my color scheme! The things that make my little OCD self happy. ;)

It's a bit like hummus, but without the tahini. The lemon juice gives it a nice bright flavor and the sour cream smooths out the texture. Even Porter likes it!

Lemony Chickpea Dip 
from Cooking Light magazine

1/3 cup fat-free sour cream
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp hot paprika (I used regular)
1/2 tsp hot sauce (this doesn't make it spice, I promise)
1/4 tsp salt
1 19-oz can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1. Combine all ingredients except cilantro in a food processor; process until smooth. Pour into a bowl. Stir in cilantro. Yield: 1 1/2 cups (serving size: 2 Tbsp)

Each serving only has 40 calories and 1.7g of fat, which is so low that you can have several and not feel too guilty. I promise you're not going to be able to limit yourself to just 2 Tablespoons! It's excellent as a dip for fresh veggies or with pitas or pita chips.

Porter, 17 months

I'm in a bit of a blogging slump, which seems to happen to me each year right around this time--the last time I had more than 10 posts in February was back in 2008! Right now, keeping my family fed, in clean clothes and keeping Porter out of mortal danger (or at the very least, serious mischief) all day long is taking up all of the mental, physical and creative energy I possess. The idea of coming up with something interesting and clever to write about is just overwhelming, to say nothing of setting up, taking and editing nice photos to accompany my words.

I feel like I'm drowning in a messy, undecorated house and lack the motivation and kid-free time to do a thing to remedy either. I know that everyone says to cherish the days when your kids are small, but right now I'm counting the days until Porter quits climbing into the kitchen sink and spraying water everywhere, or dumping the books out onto the floor for the 96th time that day, or emptying the dog's water bowl all over the wood floors, or eating Maren's crayons and markers, or playing in the butter dish, etc. etc.

=

I haven't mentioned it a whole lot here (Facebook has seen the brunt of my exasperation) but Porter is hard. My parents visited a few weeks ago; the last time we'd seen each other was September. I've told them over the phone all of the shenanigans he gets up to and how difficult it's been for me to deal with him, but I'm pretty certain they thought I was exaggerating. I felt completely vindicated when they visited and my mom admitted that she's never seen another kid like him!

He's just one of those kids who is INTO EVERYTHING, ALL OF THE TIME. He's extremely strong and has quite advanced motor skills for his age (he'll be 17 months tomorrow). He's also a champion problem-solver and maddeningly persistent--add that to fearless and three parts-spider monkey, and you can imagine why I spend the bulk of my day pulling him off the kitchen chair that he has pushed against the counter so that he can reach the butter/phone/kitchen sink/knives/glasses of water/etc. and create some sort of havoc from it, and in record-time because did I mention he's also FAST?

I love him, and I adore when he grabs a book and climbs on my lap to have me read to him or when he puts his head on my shoulder and snuggles in (he's a far cuddlier kid than Maren ever was at this age). But most days, I'm afraid I'd have to seriously consider if some gypsies came knocking on my door and offered to take him off of my hands for me...

Valentine vintage window decor

I love decorating for each holiday, but because I like to make things hard on myself  like new decorating challenges, I usually change things up each year. Here's what my Valentine decor looked like last year:

I really liked how it all looked, but I got tired of the mercury glass candlesticks and gave them all away, and the little vignette on my bench is out of the question this year because of a certain little Master of Disaster so I need to do something different this year.

Changing up my decorations each year means that it takes me a little while to get it all put together and tweaked until it's just right. I don't have this year's decor done so I don't have a photo yet, but I did make something new to be the centerpiece of my display.

I used an old window I bought several years ago at a garage sale. I decorated it for Christmas too but I never got around to showing it on my blog though I suppose now's as good a time as any:

For Christmas, I made a banner using my die-cutting machines. I cut the cute scalloped bases out of old sheet music with my Sizzix Big Shot and edged them with vintage silver glitter. I cut the letters out of red cardstock using my new Cricut machine, and clipped them onto strings of red and white baker's twine using tiny clothespins. The twine was attached to the frame using tiny clear 3M Command hooks.

For my Valentine display I knew I wanted to use my window again and even purchased some pink vinyl to use with my Cricut machine, but I changed my mind at the last minute and used cardstock instead. I've seen a few things around Etsy and blogland using this little phrase and since I'm a big-time Beatles fan, decided I'd use it too.

To get my words all straight and evenly spaced, I used a ruler to divide the window into equal sections, then used a dry-erase marker and drew lines on the back side of the window. From there it was easy to cut out, arrange and adhere my letters in nice straight lines, and then I just used a spritz of Windex to clean the lines off the back of the glass when I was done!

I put my photo background board behind the window so I could get a better picture of it, but I actually really like how it looks and I think I'll make one the correct size to place behind the window for my display. Now I just need to put the rest of the display together...

A new week--phew!

Hooray for a brand-new week! After last week's hassles, I'm more than ready to start anew. Thank you all so very much for commiserating with me! Things are mostly back to normal. We got a new battery for the car. The washing machine works again and if the pipes were frozen, they thawed with no damage (that we know of yet...knock wood). Maren did end up with a couple of fractures to her wrist: one transverse and one buckle. Here she is with her new pink cast:

She's doing fine and hasn't complained at all about wearing the cast; we'll see if that holds for the rest of the 3.5 weeks it has to stay on.

As for this little monkey,

he's still climbing out of his crib, and twice he managed to OPEN closed bedroom door! I ordered a crib tent from Amazon and paid for expedited shipping so it arrived on Friday afternoon, so I put it up and found that if I install it per the instructions, it doesn't fit my crib! There were nearly tears. From me! I think we may be able to rig it so it will work, especially since Amazon won't take it back now that it's been opened. Not sure how they think I could have figured out it wouldn't fit the crib without trying it on since there are no measurements on the box and my crib is most definitely what I would consider standard-sized, so I'll be adding my 1-star review to the others for this product on Amazon. Boo!

I did want to mention that I still have some cute vintage Valentine assortments in my Etsy shop. Shipping is cheap because I'm mailing them First Class, so you can order for the next day or so and they'll should still get to you in time for Valentine's Day on Monday.

Groundhog cupcakes

Friends, it's been a rough week. And it's only Wednesday afternoon.

On Monday morning, Maren had two cavities filled. She was a brave girl--didn't cry one tear and never even needed the nitrous oxide! That afternoon at school she fell during indoor recess (cold kept the kids inside) and hit her head on the wall and landed hard on her wrist, resulting in the dreaded call from the school nurse.

The doc decided it warranted an x-ray, and it turns out she has a buckle fracture in one of her bones. We head to the pediatric orthopedist this afternoon to find out if it needs a cast or can stay in the splint. (sidenote: Maren keeps calling her splint her "sliver." I think she's getting the whole splinter/sliver thing mixed up but it makes me giggle every time.)

Yesterday school was canceled due to ridiculously cold weather. The high temp yesterday was several degrees below zero, and we spent the whole day listening to the heater cycle on and off nearly continuously as it tried to keep up with the cold outside! I went into the basement yesterday morning to put in a load of wash and found that the water in the washer won't come on. We're not sure if it's due to a frozen pipe or just that the washer coincidentally went kaput on the coldest day of the year, but either way we have about two more days of clean undies until I'll be knocking on my neighbor's door with a basket of dirty laundry in hand.

Last night, Porter finally figured out how to climb out of his crib. I know that he's known how to do it since before Christmas, but last night was the first time he actually tried it. Moving him to a toddler bed is not an option for numerous reasons, so we're going to try the crib tent thing for a while.

To get Porter to stay in bed last night we rigged up a 'lid' for his crib out of packing boxes and duct tape. It did the trick and kept him in safely, but then I woke up around 4:30 am this morning, worried that he'd manage to get his head stuck somehow and asphyxiate so I crept downstairs and got scissors and cut all of the tape just in case.

Today school is closed again because of the extreme cold, but I decided we'd go out to the chiropractor (my back/neck are killing me) and to buy a crib tent. I got us all dressed to fend off the -20 degree windchill, strapped everyone in their car seats, and only then found that the car battery is dead. {bangs head against wall}

The bad news is, I fear we haven't faced the worst of it yet. My dear grandmother is fading rather quickly, and I'm afraid that she may not last through the week. Every time the phone rings I'm afraid to look at the caller ID.

Highlight of the past few days has been the Groundhog cupcakes that Maren and I made yesterday.

They're not perfect, but they're still cute! This photo was taken after Porter perpetrated a small Groundhog Massacre so a few of them have wonky faces. I sent them to work with The Mister--I don't care for Almond Joys, so this may be the first time I've ever made cupcakes that I didn't want to go in there and eat them all by myself.