We're Finally ALMOST Settled!

Over the past two weeks, Scott and I have packed up one house, moved almost two hours away from my hometown, and half-unpacked into our much smaller new house. To me, no matter where you live, it's always called your "house." Whether you live in a brick house, a mobile home, a travel trailer, or a tent, I always refer to it as your "home." So to be clear and honest, we moved to my new house, which is actually a teeny tiny 2 bedroom mobile home.

When the idea to downsize was first thrown around, the only thing I was throwing was a tantrum or a hissy fit. I did NOT want to downsize, and I did NOT want to live in a tiny mobile home. I, for one do not have an issue with living in a mobile home, as I've already lived in two myself. The real issue I have is the way mobile homes somehow manage to not allow you to really do much cute decorating. They are all pre-made with flower wallpaper in the kitchen and paisley in the bathroom and some speckle kind in the bedrooms and den. Lovely, yet totally not the cutest in the world. And in this world of mansions on pinterest, I wanted our new place to be one where I could make the cutest decorations and craft my way to an awesome house. Unfortunately, I've been unable to make my paintings match the flower wallpaper in the kitchen (I think I may paint over it in the near future) as of yet.

Once I gave in to the actual "idea" of moving and I agreed to move to this tiny place, I felt my anxiety rise daily. We lived in a three bedroom, two bath house and we were already bursting at the seams! How was I going to downsize my precious things? Well, even now I really can't tell you how I did it, but I know that I did give away a LOT of my things and clothes, but I can also lend you the keys to the TWO storage places we rented to hold all of OUR junk we refused to part with. The plan is to continue to unpack and rid ourselves of even more junk, and hopefully we can downsize further to only  have one storage unit. 

Then, moving weekend(s) came and went and I moseyed around the house packing this and that. The final moving weekend came and we were down to crunch time, and I didn't have nearly enough packed. Needless to say, things were thrown into boxes, a million trips were made to drop off boxes, empty most of them, only to bring them back and refill them again with more stuff. And when you're emptying boxes in a hurry, you kind of fling it here and there just to get it out. And Scott was my not so neat flinger.  

Once most of the stuff was moved out of our old house, my mom drove to our new house with a load of stuff to help us out. When she got back, she explained that our house was extremely messy and that they just had to dump things out of boxes to get them to re-use, so I shouldn't freak out when I finally go to it. I prepared myself for WWII and that's pretty much what I got. I couldn't get the mile high pile of clothes on the couch into the closet, because I couldn't even get to the closet for the boxes and piles of stuff on the way and blocking the door. It was like walking into a Hoarder's Hell. Boxes and junk piled higher than me. And this was where I was going to live. 

Needless to say, my crippling anxiety about the situation and Scott's mother graciously allowing us to stay with her for a few days to escape allowed me to determinely unpack one box at a time. It was like, "One down, a million more to go." Slowly, I started to see a little progress. Then a little more. Now, I'm happy to say that I'm fully stretched out in my living room floor typing this, and if I look ahead, I can only see one half empty box (now we're not going to look behind me...) I still have several good days worth of unpacking, sorting, throwing out, and organizing to do, but hopefully we will knock out a lot of that this weekend.

Last weekend, Scott helped me clean out one whole side of his mother's shed, and that is going to be my new workspace! (I am SO so excited about having an "office" away from home.) My fingers were getting antsy to create something, so I made a napkin holder and a jewelry box in about an hour just to get my feet wet a little! I will finally have a place to use my tools and to get away from the house for a little while! I am really anxious to have this house unpacked and just to focus on what the day brings.

All in all, my house doesn't look so tiny. I've seen it empty, I've seen it filled to the ceiling, and now I'm watching it unfold into a real home. I'm glad we downsized, because I was able to rid myself of a lot of useless clutter, and we both needed to do that!  Would I do packing differently and start earlier? Of course. But this move was needed, and we're closer to the kids and Scott's work. He gets home earlier, and I have him with me earlier, which we both enjoy. Downsizing is scary and it still makes me cringe... but I'm learning that sometimes it's for the best and a great way to have a fresh start. We won't live here forever, and we're not sure how long we will stay here, but for now, this is home.

Have a Real CHRISTmas this year!

Merry Christmas!! At our house, I think we're just going to skip right over Halloween, take just enough time to eat a few bites of turkey and macaroni and cheese on Thanksgiving, and sail straight ahead into Christmas Season. Every year I hit Christmastime Full-Speed-Ahead... and every year I procrastinate certain gifts and things that need to be done.

Where in time did the true meaning of Christmas go out the window? When did it become easier to focus on buying, choosing, wrapping, and giving a million gifts than it is to tell ten people about the whole reason we even have Christmas? Imagine if this year you told your kids and family that instead of buying gifts for them, everyone else, and your neighbors, you were going to read them a special book about the Birth of Jesus. How well do you think that would go over?

The truth is, giving gifts, buying gifts, wrapping gifts, UNwrapping gifts, opening gifts, just about ANYTHING involving gifts, is forever a part of Christmas in America. That's just how it is and will be for at least the rest of our lives.  So, why can't we give gifts AND read our kiddo's the REAL Christmas Story? If God allows us the privilege to have the financial means to make our family feel special and loved through gifts and celebrations on during each Christmas season year after year, don't you think we OWE it to Him to include Him in all of the SPLENDOR? I think WE ALL do.

I admit, in the past years, I have failed to remember the true meaning of Christmas and WHY we have Christmas. Lately, I have been painting and making different Christmas Crafts, so I've been googling random ideas to incorporate into my own ideas. I've found a million crafts with SANTA as the focus, but I started noticing how hard it was to find BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN Christmas craft ideas. That's when I really realized that I'm just as much to blame for this as anyone else is. And I also realized that also, just as everyone else, I also have the ability to fix this problem. And this season, I'm going to make a conscious effort to not only spread Holiday Cheer, but I want to make a conscious effort to remember the real reason for Christmas, WHO we are honoring, WHY we even have Christmas, etc. I want to wake up POST Christmas this year, and feel like I did my job to make God smile by remembering Him, and I encourage you all to make sure you start NOW to remind your kiddos WHY we even have Christmas.

Breathe in, Breathe out, and this year don't stress about whether you spent too much on someone or if they will know how much you spent. I wish EVERYONE, myself included, would pick out each and every gift, stocking stuffer, etc, by putting emotions and feelings into it. It's the beginning of October, so you still have time. Take your paper, and write down everyone on your list that you WANT to buy Christmas for. Beside each person, write their interests, what they enjoy doing, etc. Then, instead of hitting Dillard's when they have their special sale days, hit odds and ends stores NOW before the traffic and hustle picks up. If you put thought into their gifts instead of $$$ signs, you will find yourself making your new recipe for Christmas cheer in your life and the life of others. Who knows, you may be the only person who really put thought into that person this year. And the $5 pair of fuzzy gloves that you know the lonely housekeeper would love... put down that cosmo magazine and buy them for her in it's place. That's what we all should do. You NEVER know when your smallest of gestures may be their only gesture at all! What's small to you may be life changing for them. You could even send anonymous gifts!!

If there is a particular area of your family that is rather large, and the thought of buying for the ENTIRE family stresses you out, make the the phone call and tell them that you want to draw names this year. Set a limit and stick to that limit. If the limit is set for $25 and you stick to the limit, but they spend $40, don't feel bad about not sticking to it. I bet next year they'll spend $25 like you all agreed to, so it's only like one year of uncomfortableness... :) And don't run out and pick up random things until you reach that $25 limit... Add that person to your list of people to buy for. What do they like? What do they collect? You would be surprised what kinds of things you can add to people's collections from antique stores...

Bottom line(s):

              This year, remember the wise men brought Jesus their finest oils. They did this willingly and they wanted to give Him this gift to show Him how important HE was to everyone. Show your friends and family how important they are to you, not by buying the hottest item, but by making this Holiday CHRISTmas season count. For everyone.

What's Happening in MY World!

Good Morning! I guess I should say Good Morning... It is before 10 a.m. and so far my morning is going good. I AM a little groggy though, so it there are a few snippets here and there, I must have dozed off on my keyboard.

I did not, however, doze off while I was making these bad boys... Aren't they fabulous? You can check out this pair and  many more at my Make Up and Mud FACEBOOK Shop.


 I LOVE the little wings in the center behind the purple and silver bead... So far, I've kind of stuck to my comfort zone when I created jewelry, and I haven't really made any "out there" pieces. Well, that's about to end, because I keep getting requests for BIGGER pieces with more "Sparkle!" So, they're coming!

I think I may do a little painting today. I painted 6 wine glasses for a Bride and her Bridesmaids a few weeks ago, and I found that I really quite enjoyed watching a regular glass come to life.  I have a HUGE oversized wine glass that I purchased as a centerpiece for our wedding, and it has just been sitting all alone since March. So, I've started painting a Christmas piece, and so far so good! I guess I'll break all of the "Creativity Rules" and give you a sneak peak... (Remember, It is NOT finished!!)

TA-DA... What do you think?

Ok, If anyone can tell me how to turn the photos after I have uploaded them, PLEASE let me know! Even if I edit the picture and turn it upright in my program, it refuses to stay that way when I upload it to my blog! Grrr....

For now, just cock your head to the right, and you can see what is slowly becoming Old St. Nick. I'm still working on his mouth, so right now he seems to resemble a cat with his whispy whiskers... That will hopefully change a little later today. After I have completed all of the painting, I will then add one more entire layer of paint to finish him off, and then I will bake him in the oven for a while to make sure all of the paint is sealed forever!

(I have to add a funny little comment... As with just about anything, he looks so much better in person. When Evan saw him the other day, he exclaimed, "Wow! He really actually looks like the REAL Santa!") I can't help but crack up, because the way he said it is as if he was expecting him to look like a fake Santa... He was so excited! haha...

I only have one more oversized glass, and it is a martini glass. I'm not quite sure what I want to paint on that one yet. I'm thinking about painting a few Christmas glasses with some Holly or Mistletoe on them, but I haven't decided yet. I'd like to have some Christmas glasses, and it would be even better to create and paint some beautiful pieces to sell.

In the Spring, I painted two canvas's for our bedroom with one of our initials on each one. The "S" hangs over Scott's side of the bed, and the "C" hangs over mine (obviously). The problem is, I made them in Spring colors to match our Spring Comforter... Now, Fall Season is here, and I have to make two more pieces to match our Winter Comforter... Any ideas? 

Here is a picture of the current Initial Canvas's. I keep saying that I am going to hang curtains over that window...but so far, I'll I'm doing is "saying" it. I haven't bought curtains, and I'm probably going to wait a bit on that one. The canvas's look pretty cool in person, when the bed is actually made and the pillows are in place (which obviously isn't happening in this picture, and tends to not happen quite often...) Anyway, the Winter comforter I am going to switch this quilt out with is dark brown and light bluish/green... That's what is in the bathroom as well...

PLEASE give me some ideas for what to make next! I know this time I'm going to make the new pictures bigger than these are. I basically had painted two abstract canvas's, and I didn't like how they looked when I finished. Then I got the idea for "Initial" pictures above His/Her side of the bed, and I realized that the colors were similar to the bed quilt. I gave Scott the slightly darker canvas, because it looked more manly... :)

(FYI: I did not edit these pics, so please ignore the glare!)

And of course, I had to add a picture of our little princess, JoJo. She obviously loves the bright colors in our "Summer" bed quilt. It goes with her "tan" well... haha.

Ah... Yes. The Scrabble game Scott and I recently played. I beat him. Again. We actually played Scrabble three times on the very last night of our Honeymoon.While Most honeymooners spend their last night of Bliss trying to savor each moment together and take advantage of every piece of new lingerie received at the Bachelorette Party... NOT the New Beltons. No, we savored every last moment of our last night together trying to see who could come up with the best Triple Word Score... Romantic Huh?

The bottom line is: I won. All three games. And every game since then. And every Scrabble game I've ever played him in. Scott says his brain "just doesn't 'think' like that." My FAVORITE game is Scrabble, and I love it so much, that I play with myself when he's not home. I guess my left side and right side of my brain are playing each other... Seriously. I have to say, I am a word fanatic. And if Scott was trying to get me to play a "Numbers" game, I probably would have gone and put on Lingerie on our last Honeymoon night instead of playing the game. But, I do complete book after book of Crossword puzzles, and there's nothing like the feeling of being in a situation where a complex word is used and I'm the only one who knows what it means, because I had it in one of my previous Crossword Puzzles... Doing Crossword puzzles will make you a Scrabble whiz.

I can sit for hours and do crossword puzzles. Who knew? I started doing them after High School and I got addicted. I have tons and tons of those little Crossword puzzle books, because when I finish every puzzle in the entire book, I'm so proud of myself that I can't seem to throw it out. For me, it's like throwing out my High School Diploma. So needless to say, I take up wonderful space by saving all of the Crossword Puzzle books I have finished just so I can remind myself that I am smart... especially after I have one of my "Blonde" moments... Just call me the Queen Cruciverbalist!

I also love anything with Trivia. And luckily, Scott loves playing Trivial Pursuit. Now I'm going to let you in on an embarrassing secret... When the kids come to our house for the weekend, we all play Trivial Pursuit together. I'm fully convinced that kids today are being taught far more than we ever thought about being taught at ages 11 and 8. Now here's the sad part: When we play Trivial Pursuit with the kiddo's, we have to use two decks of the cards from two different Trivial Pursuit games. Why? Guess....

Yes, Scott uses the "REGULAR" Trivial Pursuit cards and Izzy, Evan, and I use the "JUNIOR" trivial pursuit cards. haha... That's what happens when your husband is 16 years older than you. He laughs constantly, because there's no way I'm going to be able to answer questions about something that happened in the 1980's, because I wasn't born until 1987. Laugh all you want buddy, but the youngins whip your booty quite a lot, don't we? (Love you sweets!)

(Also, with everything that has gone on with my MS and brain lesions, I have a lot of moments where I second quess things. I do little games, like I'll time myself to see if I can finish a puzzle in under three minutes, or I"ll get someone to call the clues out from across the room to do the puzzle without looking at it... as long as I can still do it, my brain is still working great!... even though that's questionable by many..haha. It keeps my brain fresh!)

More Photos from our Honeymoon can be found in my Facebook Honeymoon Albums.

If you decide to click on the Honeymoon Link above, don't forget to check out the other two Honeymoon albums as well. I'll provide the links to them below.

Honeymoon Album #2
Honeymoon Album #3

And we STILL have more to add so check back often!!


Moving on: here are the baby birds that used to live on our porch. They were there until mid-August, and it was so amazing to watch them grow. Then one day, they were hopping around the yard, and I got to watch them as they tried and finally succeeded in learning how to fly. They are baby miracles if you ask me...

And this beautiful Sunset was from our ONE beach trip this summer. I still can't believe we only got to go on one beach trip. Each Summer, I usually lose count of how many times I go to the beach... At least we got to take the Kiddos to the beach, and they had a great time!! This was one beautiful sunset we were able to experience together! Notice the shadow of the man sitting on the bridge in the distance on the far right of the picture... I'm thankful that I got to capture this! You can check out more photos in my Facebook Vacation Album.

Well, I'm about to get back to business. I have more photos to edit today, and I'm going to work on organizing more of my jewelry inventory. After I feel like I can take a break, I'm going to paint a little for fun. I've started setting the alarm on the stove, so I don't lose track of time. TIME MANAGEMENT is not one of my strong suits, and I'm having to force myself to exhibit some control, because if I don't I will never make it selling my work! Discipline is the key, and I haven't quite mastered it, but I'm working on it every day.

I would really appreciate your comments and ideas for any new pieces. I love seeing how many people are reading my blog, and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the numbers rise and rise throughout the past few months. It makes me feel connected to the world, even if I don't get out much anymore.  I would ask you for your feedback though. I can't give you what you want, make you what you like, or tell you anything interesting if you don't let me know what you would like to see or hear.

I'm going to try to fill you in more often on what's going on around our house. It's quite a bit more interesting than you would think, but then again, I'm so random and sporatic that it almost has to be interesting. Just as I included the baby birds above and the bedroom canvas pictures, I want to continue to show you those parts of our lives. I took the pictures of the canvas paintings in July and the baby birds in August, but I haven't taken the time to upload them until now. Why I chose now, I have no idea. Maybe I'm tired of being in the shadows, and I'm ready to mingle back in to the "REAL WORLD." It's easy to forget that the world is out there when you're home all the time... which I am... obviously.

I almost forgot... What do you think about Video Logging, otherwise known as Vlogging? I'm thinking of posting a video once a week to my blog or profile, just to keep you updated with the "REAL" me, LIVE in person... sort of. It makes me nervous, because I don't want to be one of those babbling You Tube videos, but I'm tryint to find a way to better connect to you. Should I post a few videos? Hmm.. Let me know what you think!

Well, HERE I COME!



 Again, THANK YOU so much for reading my blog... I love you all!

A Brand NEW Approach to Cleaning

Good Morning Everyone! (By the way, I'm totally faking this *CHEERY* attitude, because this chilly weather makes me want to go crawl right back in the bed... just to let you know.)  Now that we have that out in the open, I'll continue.

This post is about my path to a new MUCH more organized life.  Thinking about having an "Organized Life" really reminds me about how we think about our senses. While we often remember to give Sight and Smell a slot in our senses category area, a good majority of people forget that people actually have and use FIVE senses: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Touch, Smell.

Similarly, when the term "organized" comes into play, what is the first thing you think of? Do you only think of how un-clean and "dis-organized" your house is right now? What I'm learning is that I can "pick up" the clutter in my home all I want, but I also have to remember that there is Mental Clutter, Financial Clutter, Guilty Clutter, Mourning Clutter, Sentimental Clutter,  Sad Clutter, Potentially Useful Clutter, Memory Clutter, "I Might Need It One Day" Clutter, Relationship Clutter, Time Clutter... and the list goes on and on and on. I'm just a clutterbug I guess!

Have you ever really thought deep down about what kind clutter you may be carrying around? I know I hadn't until recently.  I found myself beginning to feel overwhelmed, but I couldn't quite put my finger on the cause of this sudden stress.  Sound familiar?  For more information on types of clutter and how to take control of your clutter, click on the links below. (Don't forget to come back to the good stuff!)

{FYI: I'm about to tell you why these approaches do NOT work for me, but they may work for you.}

6 Types of Clutter
Oprah's Clutter Control Remedies
How Clutter Control Affects You

I have never really thought of myself as an organized person. In the past, I was never stressed out enough to feel the need seek out a cause to blame it on. That sure has changed! In the past 6 months, I've struggled with so many new changes in my life, and I've looked near and far for the main cause of the changes. The only answer I can come up with is that my changes were just in God's plan for me. That's fine with me, because I would rather be a part of God's plan and not understand why he dealt me these cards than be in a rough situation that I was responsible for on my own. I think that's why the clutter in my life is so frustrating: I did it to myself.

BACK to the point: (See, the same thing happens when I try to clean: I get DISTRACTED!)

If you open any "Lady" magazine, you can almost bet that somewhere inside there will be at least one article about household organization. I'm waiting for the day when all of the "Women's" magazines realize that they just rotate advice around from one article to the next... and it doesn't work half of the time.

Common advice doesn't always work for everyone, and it amazes me that magazine editors still haven't created a few more reasonable or unique approaches to housework. Below, I have listed a few "Common Clutter-Clearing Tips" that I see ALL the time. So, underneath each useless tip is a little tidbit of what I think about it and why it doesn't work for me.

The Common Advice 

• Walk into a room and pick up everything you see that doesn't belong there.

                            - I don't like this tip, because I feel like the writer is trying to make me feel like an idiot. Obviously, IF I could go into a room and pick up everything out of place and it was really that easy, there's a pretty good chance that I wouldn't need to read the article in the first place. I would have already picked everything up and put it away. Strike One... NEXT.

• Everything in your house needs to have a "place" where it belongs.

                             -  REALLY? Everything needs to have a place? Uh yea, obviously. And if I KNEW how to make a place for everything, again, I wouldn't be reading the article. I want to know HOW to find a place for everything. A "REASONABLE" how-to... Not one of those, "Save 20 cereal boxes and cover them with wall paper and have your husband use his circular saw to cut eleven of the thirteen 2x4's you had to buy from 'Herald's Home Place' specifically for this project" and hotglue them together and so forth.  That is NOT the norm...

                             - First of all, I said "Herald's Home Place," because there is a 50/50 chance that you will have never heard of the hardware store recommended in the magazine, the one with "the lowest price around." Around what? Sometimes I think writers google all over to find the store with the cheapest lumber prices, even if the only one in the entire United States is in Idaho. Second of all, I can almost promise you that IF you indeed routinely volunteer your husband and his circular saw for every cereal box DIY craft that you run just happen to across, there's a good chance you will need to read to the "Why Does My Husband Avoid ME" printed a few pages over. Long point short: Give us some eco-friendly, easy, CHEAP ways to organize. Strike Two... NEXT.

• Only save the "Really Special Artwork" that your child has made, and take digital pictures of the rest. You can print the pictures and look at them forever without the clutter of all of the coloring pages.

                            -  Ok, let me be clear for those who do not know me personally: I am not a mother to a biological child.  I do, however, have two creative little stepchildren who constantly draw and design oodles of pictures and items for their Daddy and me. I even have a box in the top of our closet with special little keepsakes they have created. While they are only at our house every other weekend, they still draw like 10 pictures at a time... each. I wish I knew how many "books" with silly little stories they have created and stapled together for us, but I lost count a while ago. And I've kept every single one.

                            - My point is: I don't want to take a picture of their artwork. And it's probably not for the reason that you may think. I don't want to take a picture and toss out the art work, because I just don't agree with the reasoning. You're swapping out an original for a duplicate. Printed pictures are also going to take up space, right? So, you might say, "I'll burn the pictures of their artwork on a c.d. to save space."  Really? You're going to take the time to round up the artwork, take an individual photo of each page (usually double sided as well), so around two pictures of EACH page, and upload or scan them into your computer, name each picture describing what it is, who drew it, and what year it was made. Then, you're going to either upload the files to Rite Aid and drive there to pick up your child's artwork pictures? Or if you opt for the Image C.D. route, are you going to put the images in a folder and burn a million C.D.s and then label each C.D. and create a way to organize them?

                          -Either way, you're going to be in a bad mood, because you just threw our your kid's precious artwork! Just take twenty minutes and stack each paper individually, neatly, with one on top of the other and put it in a clear $4 bin from Wal-Mart and slide it under the bed or put it up in the top of the closet. Do you really think you're going to have that day where you say, "You know what? I don't have anything to do today. I think I'm going to go find the disc with Tommy's artwork from 2nd grade and look at all of those pretty scribbles on the computer this afternoon?" Please just stop kidding yourself.

                        -In reality, you are going to want to pull out that old dusty box of "Scribbles" after your "baby boy" moves off to college and cry as you have your midlife crisis, wishing that he was five years old again. You actually DESERVE to keep the originals as proof that you actually kept another tiny teacup human alive AND they were somewhat creative. SCORE! (ha... that makes me crack up to hear someone say that, and I've been looking for a place to throw that in!)

Back to the point: You'll be in even more distress if you regret throwing the originals away. Most of our world is digital and made up of replicas, so I think there's something special about original items to bring you back in time. So if someome tells you to take a picture of your kids artwork and "bid it farewell," then I suggest that you tell them to go take a picture of their grandmother's 100 year old china cabinet and sell it for $10 at a yard sale... Strike three... THE MAGAZINE ADVICE COLUMNS LOSE.

                       -(I HAVE to add this last tidbit just because it annoys me to read it over and over... so here's one more piece of useless advice.)

• Ask yourself, "Do I REALLY need this?" If the answer is "No," then toss it out.

                       - What kind of dilusional world do these overpaid organizers live in? Don't they think that IF indeed you are reading an article on how to get organized, then you have probably already asked yourself IF you need a specific item like a million times already, and the answer is, "Yes. Yes I do need to keep the busted float from the beach trip in 1999, because it CAN be fixed. And what if there's a time in life where we don't have the money to buy another $2 float? When everyone else needs a float and they can't afford to buy one, I won't have to worry about anything, because I kept AND fixed mine!"

                       - Now we're just going to ignore the fact that IF you did happen to keep a ripped $2 float for 12 years, waiting to need to fix it during a economical depression, then you are probably not JUST a "tad bit unorganized." You're probably well on your way to arriving at your next "Hoarders Anonymous" meeting. The main point I'm trying to make is, people who keep pure crap and wierd junk are horrible at organizing, but they have a freakishly awesome ability to rationalize anything. They will indeed ask theirselves IF they actually need something, and the ALWAYS "yes". I ask myself all the time if I REALLY need something, and I'm so distracted and unorganized that sometimes I even forget to answer! :)

The REAL Bottom Line:  Don't these Martha Stewart clones think that if everyone could/would "spend twenty minutes a day" putting away items that we wouldn't have an issue with clutter?

BACK TO MY OWN MESSY HOUSE:

I think I may have FINALLY found the solution to my clutter... FLYLADY!!!

You have GOT to check out this site! FLYLADY takes a whole new approach to cleaning, and I believe she specifically works well for people with "Attention Issues," much like myself. She teaches you how to use new approaches to my three main demons: PROCRASTINATION, GETTING SIDETRACKED and BOREDOM! I LOVE this site!

One of the HUGE things I find motivating about this new sight is that the FLYLADY herself, Marla Cilley, is not one of those "Organizing Fanatics" that was practically born obsessively color coordinating and organizing her crayons when she was like 3. She didn't spend her childhood making her parents beam with pride at how clean she kept her room. No, Ms. Cilley was once a dysfunctional personal herself, so she really knows what she's talking about. Regular methods didn't work for her, either. LOVE IT!

I have found that I work much better if I set my own goals rather than follow another person's schedule. All of our lives are going in different directions, right? All I know is, when I found this site, I just about peed in my pants with excitement, because I finally found someone who just seemed to "get" me and my organizational issues. I now have a new title to add to my chaos: I am a... "FLY Baby."

Here are a few links to get you on the right track!

Getting Started with FLYLADY
Start with BABYSTEPS
What to Expect from FLYLADY

So, if you want to try to make an attempt at become more organized and efficient and the regular methods just aren't helping you become successful, I recommend that you check out FLYLADY.  I really don't see how it could hurt!

Here are a few of the motivational pictures and quotes that I use to "BOOST" my cleaning genes...

Now, in the words of the FLYLADY herself.... "Go Shine Your Sink!"

Decorating Daydreams.... Sigh...

I am absolutely so fed up with the clutter and chaos in our house. I moved to college, back home to my parent's house for three weeks, then moved to Deatsville for almost 4 years, then moved to an apartment in Montgomery for a year, and now we live in Tallassee. And this whole time, I have accumulated more junk than you can imagine.

Lately, I have been working to reduce the clutter in my house,because I read that the clutter in your house causes clutter in your life. So, I joined Clutterer's Anonymous. That's right, I'm addicted to clutter. Actually, I have that whole mentality, "I'm may be able to use this one day." or the famous, "I'm saving that, because I'm going to use it on a project one day." I hate to get rid of things, and I thought the clutter book was a joke when Scott brought it to me in the store. And while I indeed took offense to his less than subtle hint, I have to admit that almost everything it said was true.

So, I've been googling (while I procrastinated cleaning, of course) little ways to spruce up your home and reduce clutter. At first it was like two steps forward, three steps back. I have cleaning ADD. I get distracted by the smallest things, and I will truly get lost in my own world for hours and hours. I have no idea where my time goes sometimes. Well, as I've been slowly clearing out and cleaning up, I've found myself changing my outlook about the house. I shrieked, "SSScccccOOOOTTTT!!!!! Come here PLEASE!!!" the other day when I found his jogging shorts on the bathroom floor. And all I could do is point to them and say, "No! I don't think so!" He looked at me like I had lost my mind, and he was like, "Man, someone is changing their mind a little huh?" (The day before you probably couldn't see the floor because of all of my crap.) And it's not like the rest of the house was clean, because it was still a wreck. But, I had cleaned the bathroom, and I wanted to see my progress. And slowly but surely, progress is what I am making!

I decided that I couldn't pick up the house unless I clean out the house. With the new wedding gifts and his stuff moving in and mingling with my junk, we have a lot of things that need to be organized! But, I also realized that our decorations are... nonexistent. So, I've also been redoing different items to give us a new look with a frugal approach. A nonexistent money approach actually. I'll post some pictures soon! Before and after...

For now, I'm going to pretend that our house is spotless, and I'm going to take you on a virtual tour of our imaginary home. My dream home. My motivation. Oh, and of course I threw in a few pictures of my dream cars... OLD HEARSES. I have wanted one since I was little... Here we go.....