Tag Archives: Cleaning

Where Did the Day Go?

Good evening!

My sweetie just came in and asked me if I knew what time it was, and when he told me it was past 10 my bottom jaw almost hit the ground! IT JUST COULDN’T BE!?!?!?

But, apparently it is!!

I got home late this evening because I had to take a huge bag of stuff back to The Craft Warehouse this evening – apparently, I had momentarily lost my mind this weekend, and gave myself a insane crafting supply shopping spree!! 😉

Anyway, that took me almost 2 HOURS, all by itself!! Then I grabbed dinner, got home, watched a quick show with my sickie hubby, and then went straight to the art studio to continue progress on getting the room clean!! It is soooo close!! I think I will have about one more trip to the thrift store, and a couple of more trips out to the recycle bin, and I will be officially DONE!!! I CAN’T WAIT!!! 😉

I know I had told you that I would get a couple of pics posted tonight, but I let time get away from me, and pics of any kind are just not going to get done this evening!! I am sorry!!

I will have them posted tomorrow evening!! FOR SURE! HANDS DOWN! I will make sure to post them AS SOON AS I GET HOME FROM WORK!!!

Anyway, I am soooo excited about the next chapter of my life – WHATEVER THAT IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE!!! I am going to take my tired self to bed so that I can dream about the rest of my week!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

A New Evening!!

Good evening!

For most of the day today, I have been frantic whirlwind of cleaning, organizing and purging!! My art studio/office is starting to look better, but it seems that as soon as I clean up one pile, two more show themselves!! Those sneaky little pests!!! 😉 I did not take any pictures this evening, however, I’m confident that I will be able to in a few days, and the room will be completely done!!! WHEW!!

In the process of cleaning, purging and organizing my office/art studio, I am learning to realize just how important a safe place to create is for me. This is ABSOLUTELY priceless!! I am excited to see where my imagination can take me, and I know that having a clean, organized, clutter free space that truly represents my personality is something that EVERY GIRL should have! Especially, if one is trying to tap into one’s inner artist! I can honestly tell you that I don’t know where I will end up in 1 year, 5 years, 10 or 20, but I CAN tell you, that it is GOING TO BE GOOD!!

I want to give a shout out to my husband, Jason!! There were many times today, and this whole weekend, where I have been completely overwhelmed and needed either some moral support, cheerleading, or just someone with a stronger will then I to physically remove some items from our place that just needed to get donated or recycled!! Jason has done that for me, as he has on many occasions!! I love you, Sweetie, and I could not have gotten nearly as far as I have without your help! YOU ARE MY ROCK! You make my life so much better, and I still thank God that you are in my life. I TRULY am one lucky girl, and I OWE YOU SOOOOO BIG TIME!!! Thank you, Jay!

As for this week! I am not sure exactly what to expect yet, but priority number one is to get this art studio/office finished!!! Mamma needs a place to create!!

Work will be busy, but really, when is it not?? I also need to make sure that I get a couple of weeks on the calendar for our vacation! We are planning on camping with my sister’s family at the end of the month, but even that time has not been approved just yet! So, I will have to do some negotiating with some of my co-workers on that!

I am wanting to take a Zumbe class! I was planning on starting that next week, but I was burning my candle at both ends, still am, and that is going to have to wait a little while longer!! 😉 That is part of the reason for uncluttering my home so that I have more time and energy for doing the things I want to do – like Zumba!!

Have I told you that I am still doing my Artist’s Way morning pages, and weekly artist’s date with myself. I am, and I am still loving it! I was surprised to see that I was on week 9 of that process!!  The old Christina really never did very well with following through on things like this. This new Christina can’t imagine never not doing it!! They have radically changed the way that I look at my life, which in turn has changed me!! For the better!! I am so much happier than I was in the past, and I have reconnected with my creator, and now have hope for a different future than the dismal one I was settling for!! now, if only this new Christina could just lose some weight, and figure out world peace, all would be DIVINE wouldn’t it??? LOL! 😉

Until I speak with all tomorrow…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

 

Slowly But Surely!

Good evening!

I know that these pics may not look like I am making much headway in my art studio/office clean, up but I feel like I am doing A LOT!!!

My sweetie helped me locate, and assembled this perfect little bookshelf to put on top of my craft dresser, My new motto is storage, storage, storage!! I have spent a good portion of my day sorting supplies and putting all like items together. Tomorrow will be more about getting things out of there for donating to charity, recycling old magazines, and papers, putting everything into their new homes, and decorating like a banshee!! That is my FAVORITE part!!! 😉

I am loving the green on the walls, I had dabbled with the idea of changing it, but to be honest with you – it is just too much work!! So, I am sticking with my gut and just working with it! I am adding baby pink, silver, and baby blue into the mix!!  Also adding the cubicle bookcase on top of the dresser and some lovely white curtains, is making this place feel so much nicer – even though there is still sooooooo much left to do!!! I think the room is taking on a much softer  girlier-glam feel! I know that is hard to believe when looking at these pics, but it really took me 5 years to get it into the state that it was in, so it is going to take me a little while to get it back to ship-shape!! 😉

I must confess, that I was so overwhelmed when I went in there to start this morning, that I decided to go shopping instead! Nice, right??? I bought some replacement essentials like bed pillows, and towels, which we were in desperate need of new ones!! Then when I got home, Jason helped me first thing, and I was still sooooo overwhelmed!! WHERE THE HECK DO I START??? Well, when I had taken Linda and GG’s craft class, they started with a meditation, so I thought I would give that a try! It TOTALLY worked!! I realized I had to stop feeling guilty and forgive myself for letting the room get to be such a disaster. I then made the decision to open my eyes, find one thing to toss, and one thing to put away. That seemed easy enough to commit to, so I did it, and then did again, and before I knew it I was on a roll!!

Anyway, I have a lot of work ahead of me for tomorrow, but I am excited to see what I can get done!!

TO-WANDA!!!!
(a la Fired Green Tomatoes, for those who are not in the know!)

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

A Rather Productive Day!

Good evening!

I realize that I have been doing a lot of late night posts, but I am pushing the envelope to get AS MUCH done as possible!! 😉

Today, my goal was to start uncluttering my nightstand, bedroom, writing desk, walk-in closet and dresser drawers!! It took me most of the day, but I am very happy to report that I have gotten that done!! I was able to gather 3 bags and 2 boxes worth of clothing that will be either given away or donated to charity!! WHEW!! That was about 60 items of clothing that will no longer be cluttering up my closet!! I also have completely reorganized the sort order of everything, it used to be by color, but now it is by type of clothing. All dresses in one section, pants, in another, skirts in another, etc. etc. I have never organized my closet that way, but I am SERIOUSLY loving it!! The colors are all integrated together, and somehow it feels much cheerier the way it is organized now – more like me, if that makes any sense??

Tomorrow, my goal will be to unclutter the upstairs linen closet, bathroom, and craft room/office. THAT room is going to be the SCARIEST because there is just sooooo much stuff in there that really needs purging!! HOWEVER, the task seems to be much easier than I had orinally would be because I am able to look at each item and say, “Does this truly represent me and our new lifestyle?” No? then out it goes!! I know there will be someone else who will be able to use it, if not I!! 😉

I had planned on taking before and after pictures, but in all honesty I was so excited to get started this morning, that I didn’t do ANYTHING else when I got out of bed! I literally, sat up and started cleaning my nightstand off! Ok, that might be a little bizarre!!

Anyway, this evening my sweetie and I went to dinner and a movie with some friends of ours, Dawn and Erin. We had a nice dinner, and then zipped over to go see Pirates of the Carribean III, in 3D. It was a long movie, and it was alright. However, the scenery was FANTASTIC, the costumes were MESMERIZING, the soundtrack was HYPNOTIC, and the relationship between the Christian and the mermaid was HOT & STEAMY!!! YUM!! It made me want to spend tomorow reading a lust int he dust book, which is what we call romance novels in this house!! 😉 but, I will stay focused!! I have brought soooo much new stuff into this house, and I have to do all I can to make sure that EVERY SINGLE THING IN THIS HOUSE HAS A HOME WITHIN IT!! 😉 I will get there, it will just take me some time!! Ok, maybe a LOT of time, but it will happen slowly but surely!!

As for now, I will just be happy to be able to “shop” in my newly cleaned, purged, and organized closet!! It is SIMPLY DIVINE!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Art Studio Reality Check!

Good evening!!

Wow! Where do I start??? I have a lot going on, right now, but I wanted to share about an EMBARRASSING secret that I have been living with, that is becoming a bigger and bigger obstacle on my path to to my creative self!!!

This evening I spent a little time in my “Art Studio”. I say art studio in quotes because my space that can become my dedicated art space AKA Art Studio! Well, let me show you some pics:

I am ABSOLUTELY MORTIFIED of this CATASTROPHIC MESS!!!

(Click to enlarge)

and just take a gander at my work table!

(Click to enlarge)

How the heck am I supposed to get any CREATING done in this HEAP of a room!!

AAAAAAAACK!!

My craft room has become a problem for me, as you can see from the ATROCIOUS pics above!! So, I have decided to host my own makeover intervention with myself!! This whole transformation is being brought on because I have been spending some time reading the latest publication of Where Women Create. I want to have a room comparable to one of these women’s FABULOUS art studios!! With interesting and fun storage idas, everything organized with their own style stamp on their spaces!! I just know it will make any art I create that much sweeter!! Ok, that might be wishful thinking on my part, but it really would make it be a space that I would LOVE to spend time in, and not a space that I cringe to!!!

So, more to come! I will definitely keep you all posted!! 😉 Over the next week or few, depending on how long it takes I am going to be taking some progress pics to show you what progress I am making on turning this room into a place of BEAUTY and CREATIVITY!!! This may take a while!! 😉

In the meantime,

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Taxing Kind of Morning!

Good morning!

Having meditated before bed last night, which in turn caused me to fall asleep faster, I woke up early this morning raring to go!! I’ve decided that I needed to gather my tax papers so that I can file my taxes! I was sure I had a fail-safe plan when I chose a location to “stash” all of the random incoming papers, so as not to lose them, but unfortunately there must have been some kind of a hiccup in my plan, because I am missing two very important papers! Dang! It is going to cause me to have to serious spend some time this evening looking for them!! Oh well, that will teach me!

As I continue to think about where I could have placed those tax papers, I look around and see a couple of stacks of things that just need to be donated, or even tossed in this room! I am sitting in our spare room, which has kinda become a craft room/office/mini library. As you may already know, I go through phases of cleaning/purging/using this room, and other times this room stays completely closed up and unused all together! Sad, really! and what a waste of square footage!! My office is talking about having us telecommute on a more permanent basis, since desk space is becoming a rarity at work right now, which means that this would be the room that I would have to work out of. In it’s current state, I am not sure that would be possible! Not to mention, this chair is not meant to be sat on for long periods of time!!! I think what I am trying to say, is that I have got to keep making this room more of a priority to get FINISHED!!! This room could be such a SWEET spot!! I will get on that!! 😉

As for work today??? Well, I am going to have to be a little more focused in my tasks otherwise I will have a repeat of yesterday, where I had gotten a lot of work done, but they may not have been the BEST use of my time! I have some big assignments that a lot of people are waiting for! I am hoping to knock one of those out of the ballpark today and into the hands of one of my customers!!! That would make for a GREAT day!! 😉

I am going to run and set myself up for a LEVEL 10 day!!! as for you…

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

Putting My House on a Diet!

Good evening!!

Before I start my rant this evening, I wanted to give a shout out to my sister, Alexa, in Arizona! I am just SO PROUD OF HER!! She bit the bullet, and has started a blog! I look forward to reading about her hopes, dreams, and desires! I love you, Sissy! You mean the world to me!!! CHECK HER OUT HERE!!! 😉

On to my nightly rant 😉

Tonight is one of those rare evenings when I am home by myself, and I noticed something as I walked through my front door, that for some reason I haven’t noticed lately:

MY HOUSE IS A BIG OL’ PIG-STYE!!!

SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! So not only have I made a HUGE dent on chores since I have gotten home from work, but I have decided to put my house on a SERIOUS DIET!!! I already have a box packed and ready to go to Goodwill! I think I will take that over there before I get my dinner ready!!

Where does this need to pack as much CRAP into your life as humanly possible come from?? Is this the American dream? Is this what I work so long and hard at a job that literally drains me of all energy and motivation to do anything??? OH HELL NO!!! I am not sure how my husband is going to feel about it, but SOMEONE has got to stop the insanity and HONEY, THAT SOMEONE LOOKS LIKE IT IS GOING TO BE ME!!!

The first thing I am going to do is turn on my happy music, and gather 3 bins/bags/receptacles:

  1. Stuff to  put away!
  2. Trash to throw away!
  3. Stuff to give away!

Then I am going to pick one room to go through every other day – that way I don’t overwhelm myself and just decide what to do with each item I come across!! Do I really need 6 years worth of magazines??? Well…NO! I DON’T! I am taking my home back!!

When I think of all the time and money I have invested into all of this STUFF & not even IMPORTANT STUFF, and how much time and money I STILL invest in all of this STUFF, it just makes me green with sickness!! UGH! I am sure I could have gone to Paris 3 times over already!! WHAAA!

Ok, so I am putting my big girl panties on, getting with the program, and taking responsibility for the mess (LITERALLY) that I have gotten myself in, and I my house is now OFFICIALLY on a diet!!

Wish me luck!! I hope my house doesn’t end up going through withdrawals, or going through the DTS, I am not sure I will be able to handle that. But I am mentally prepared to deal with a house that will be, at times very snarky, and I will have to deal with all of it’s cravings for a new tcha0ki, or magazine, or dust ruffle – who knows what kind of tail spin a diet of this magnitude could do to my house!!! LOL! I will keep you posted!! 😉

As I get my booty busy cleaning house…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Note to Chunky Dunkers: How is everything going, did you think I had forgotten about you?? NO WAY! I am still in the thick (and thin) of trying to take care of my body, and get fit and healthy!! Hang in there, if you fall of the wagon, just get yourself up, and hop back on. One step at a time, one minute at a time, one bite at a time! WE CAN DO THIS!!!

The Perfect Sunday!

Good evening!

I have quite a lovely Sunday, matter-of-fact it has been a dang-near-perfect Sunday!

I got to sleep in, then immediately continued reading this REALLY good book, “The Discovery of Witches”, until I finished it. WHOO! HOO!!

“The Discovery of Witches” is about a well known historian, Diane Bishop, who because of the murder of her parents when she was young has turned her back on her heritage and doesn’t want to have anything to do with the fact that she comes from a long line of powerful witches. Not to mention the fact that she could have the potential to be a very powerful witch herself. Things change when she discovers a very old, magically bound book in Oxford University’s library, and unknowingly uses magic to open it. In opening this mysterious book, which has been missing for over the last century, she has inadvertently drawn attention to herself from every whitch, vampire, and daemon who will stop at nothing to figure out what powers she posses to be able to open this sacred text, only she doesn’t know how she did it herself. There is only one who can help her discover who she truly is, and that is a dark, brooding, 1500 year old vampire named, Matthew, but how can a witch and vampire coexist? Only determination of our hero and heroine, the help of some unlikely sources, and time will tell.

This book had the passion of the Twilight series, the mystery of the Harry Potter series, and even though this book did have a couple of slow spots, for the most part I remained on the edge of my seat wanting to see what happens next. There were a lot of ironic twists, and every time you were sure that all of the book’s secrets have been divulged, it would throw something new at you to absorb! FANTASTIC!!! I can not wait for the next book to come out.

After my morning of reading, I decided it was time to do something productive and I don’t get the opportunity to cook a lot, it is my husband’s kitchen after all, but today I just felt like I needed to get the desire to create something yummy out of my system! So, I put together, in our crock pot, a homemade chili recipe that I invented, which I was able to use some leftover grilled steak we had on hand. The chili has been cooking for a couple of hours and the house smells of grilled onions, chili, and honey cornbread now. Everything should be ready to eat in about a half an hour. Thank you, Baby for letting me dirty up your kitchen. I know that he is happy to have the night off!! 😉

Anyway, this evening I am going to get all of my laundry put away and see what I can do about clearing out some of my closet. After my shopping trip to Torrid yesterday, it just feels like the natural thing to do next!! One thing in, one thing out!

After that, if there is still some time left in our day, I am going to pull out my crochet and see if I can get back into working on some squares that I had been learning how to make and I am sure that my sweetie and I will watch the next episode of Bones.

I wish all weekends could be this productive and still this peaceful!! BLISS!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

Note to Chunky Dunkers: Look for ways to slim down some of your favorite recipes. Swap full fat ingredients for lower fat substitutes, decrease the amount of salt you add to your food, try switching apple sauce for oils when baking, exchange white flour products for wheat, add pureed veggies into your soups. All of these little tricks will getting you eating healthier without you having to sacrifice any of your favorites. GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!! 😉

The Sunday of Goodness!

Today has been such a GOOD day!!!

To start, my husband and I spent a good portion of the day putting all of our Christmas decorations away – yes, I know, it is January 30th, but last year Christmas was up in our house until sometime in March! Sad, really, but we were just soooo busy, and we never made it a priority!! Well, not this year!!! AND, did you hear me say that MY HUSBAND and I put the decorations away????? Well, this is the FIRST TIME IN 16 YEARS that HE HELPED!!! Thank you, sweetie!!! THAT WAS SOOOOO MUCH FASTER THAN DOING IT BY MYSELF!!! 😉

I was so impressed with our work that I took a pic as proof from here and evermore that, once during 2011, OUR LIVING ROOM WAS CLEAN!!! WHOOOOOO!!!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

My One Scary Thing!

What a big order to live up to. I picked up this little sign at the gift shop at work today; I had seen it before, but today it really made me think!! I realized that I really don’t do ANYTHING scary most days, and for some reason that REALLY bothered me!

So tonight when I got home I decided to do the scariest thing that I could think of – CLEAN MY ROOM!!! DUH-DUH-DUH!!! I ate a quick dinner, ran upstairs, turned on some music, and just got busy!!! Here are some before and after pictures of different areas of my room. Please note: these pics are kinda blurry – I had a feature on my camera I had forgotten to turn off – OOPS!! 😉

Bed: It really looks so nice when it is made, I don’t know why I don’t seem to remember that!! 😉

Dresser: This is the first piece of furniture that I walk past when I come into my room, so it kinda becomes a catch-all for the clutter!

Writing Desk: I just ADORE this little desk. This was an $18 find at a mansion’s garage sale!!! I function so much better here when it is nice and tidy!!!

WHEW!! I am glad that is done!! Tomorrow night, I will post pics of the walk-in closet, that I also cleaned up this evening!!

As for my Visual Nutrition Plan:

Today is day 13 of my 30-Day-Self-Created-Visual-Nutrition-Plan!! I can eat whatever I want, but I have to take a picture of ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I eat and post it on this blog – and have to be willing to take any criticism I might incur!!! The knowledge that I have to take pics and post everything that I have eaten has really curbed a couple of poor choices!! Although, an occasional treat can sometimes be DIVINE!!!

I think I did pretty well; I passed up the office brownies, and then later cookies, and then later the chocolate candy dish – and today was

S-T-R-E-S-S-F-U-L!!

So, to be able to pass up those goodies, I think was pretty

FREAKIN’ AWESOME!!!

With that said, I did splurge on dessert tonight – I had a 1/2 a piece of cake, and 1/2 cup of no sugar added ice cream – the only catch was that I told myself that I couldn’t eat it until I got my chores done!!!

Chores done? Check!

Dessert? Check! Check!

So, here are today’s eats:

Breakfast: Berry bagel with light cream cheese, and sugar-free, fat-free iced mocha

Lunch: Homemade veggie soup with added baked chicken!! (Veggie soup contains: onion, leeks, tomatoes, and potatoes.)

Snack: A cup of grapes, and a plum (my last one)

Dinner: A fried chicken breast from my neighborhood deli, and a huge serving of steamed asparagus – I figured that the asparagus must’ve counter balanced the badness of the fried chicken, at least a little!! *WINK!*

Dessert: 1/2 a piece of chocolate cake with frosting, topped with a maraschino cherries, and 1/2 a scoop of no sugar added chocolate ice cream

Even though work was REALLY, REALLY BAD today, I think overall, I had a REALLY GOOD day!!! It really is the little things in life that really make you happy!!! My bedroom, and walk-in closet are clean, my chores are done, Nette came over for a short visit, which was fun, it looks like I am going to be able to get to bed on time tonight, and I sent someone special her birthday card with a little gift tucked inside!!! It’s all GREAT!!!

In the comments tonight, I would LOVE to hear what scary thing you think you should be doing, and what you are going to do to start taking action to get it done!! I can’t wait to hear your ideas!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!