The Compendium | March 14

 

com·pen·di·um
/kəmˈpendēəm/
1  a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject;
concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.
a summary, epitome, or abridgment.

3  a full list or inventory: a compendium of their complaints.


Here is a peek into our week, in no particular order:

“Things That Zack Tried to Eat This Week”

This week I didn’t take a photo of anything that he tried to eat.  Not that he didn’t try to eat things other than his food and treats, I just didn’t get a photo of it.  However:

I posted this on my instagram.  I know, I have no shame.  This is what happens when you don’t vacuum for a week and half.  I have been vacuuming the den on Mondays and I got a stomach bug last week, so it didn’t get done.  Denton told me that I was going to blow up my Dyson.  I certainly hope not…..

I said its a good thing he’s so pretty.

Spring is coming!

Our lady was soaking up the sunshine.  We are supposed to get freezing rain on Tuesday, so we will enjoy the springtime while we’ve got it.  Right Hazel?  Right.

Our doorbell has seen better days, so I ordered a replacement and put it in a few days ago.

I was being blinded by the sun scorching my retinas and didn’t notice that it was crooked until I stepped back to take this photo and realized that I would need to take it completely apart and redo it. Sigh.

Much better now.  Have you ever noticed that when you finish one project there is another glaring out at you to get onto next?  Trim, your time is coming.  Not today, but soon.  Progress over perfection.  I have claimed The Flylady’s moto for my own.  Otherwise I would just curl up with a book and never do anything.


So.  What happened in your neck of the woods last week?  I feel much better this week.  I hope none of you end up with whatever I had, it put me in the bed for two days and took me more days than that to recover.  I’m glad to be back!

Also the time change and the dog are kicking my petunia.  It doesn’t matter what the clock says, it’s time to get up and go see what we can see, says Zack.  I’ve never been a coffee drinker but I think my time has come to start taking it up……

If you are interested in what’s been happening in previous weeks, you can see them all here.

The Compendium / February 28

 

com·pen·di·um
/kəmˈpendēəm/
1  a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject;
concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.
a summary, epitome, or abridgment.

3  a full list or inventory: a compendium of their complaints.


Here is a peek into our week, in no particular order:

“Things That Zack Tried to Eat This Week”

Warning! If you are eating you may not want to see this photo!

Zyppah Anti snoring mouth piece

This is Denton’s snoring mouthpiece.  They cost $100.00.  Zack chewed it up and ate part of it this week.  Neither Denton or I were happy about this.  There are many others on amazon, but if you or your partner snore, I HIGHLY recommend this one.  We have been married for over 25 years now and Denton has snored every single night of all those years.  I’ve tried to get him to have a sleep study done, but he will not even consider it.  This thing was his compromise.  It works.  Does it completely eliminate all of his snoring?  No, but I can tell you that 99 percent of it is gone.  He also doesn’t stop breathing in the middle of the night anymore.  Okay, my sales pitch is over.  I didn’t mean for this to turn into one, but when something works, I need to tell you.

My laundry helpers.   

Hazel is the sweetest little thing.  But I think that she’s also the most vicious of our fur babies.  She won’t hesitate to slice you open if you get in her way.  If they are playing with a toy, DO NOT try to interfere, lol.  Otherwise, she is the softest, most loving kitty we’ve ever had.

Little Leo in his patch of sun.  Koshka and Hazel were right there with him, but they decided that they didn’t want their photo on the internet today.

Liv and I did the grocery shopping Saturday morning and we stopped by our local thrift shop afterwards.  Sometimes I’m amazed at the things that they have on display.  It also makes me want to know why?!?  Why do they have six walkers at the same time for sale?  I could make up all kinds of scenarios to explain this…..

We have normal drinking glasses at our house, and then we have the big bubba version in glass that Hayden and Denton jockey over all the time.  I spotted this one on the shelf and immediately texted Denton and asked did he want this one to add to their collection.  Why you need 30 ounces of water at a time bumfuzzles me.  I like my water ice cold and by the time I got to the bottom of one of these glasses it would be room temperature.  But that’s how they both like their water, sooooooo.  You do you, is what I always say.  He said yes, BTW, so now they have a silver rimmed, worn version to add to the ones they drink out of.  Yes, I could just buy them a set of six or eight of these giant glasses, but where would they  I get my fun from then?  I like the hunt of the thrift store.  Also between me and Little Leo, all of those would be broken soon and I would have to order more.  Leonard Nimoy t-shirt Star Trek

If you missed my quote of the week last week it was by Leonard Nimoy – whom I love.  I always like to try to include a t-shirt or something when I post them.  I loved this one.  I think Denton should buy it for me.  I wish it came in v-neck though, these circle neck t-shirts choke me.  Now I sound like my mama, hahaha.

After all the snow that we’ve had, it’s raining which takes me to my happy place.  Spring is coming!  Look at the size of that earthworm.  Also – does your dog curl his nails like a human?  Zack can and its very bizarre.  None of our other dogs have been able to do this.  Or if they could they didn’t.  If I’m sitting down when he wants to go outside he’ll come and put his paw on my knee and tilt his head.  Not the best way to indicate you need to go pee, but it’s something.  If I tell him to wait a moment, he’ll curl his nail into my leg like something trying to dig their nail into you.  He has giant paws, so we are working on this rudeness……Schitt's Creek

Last but not least, I posted on Friday what we’ve been watching.  Have you seen Schitt’s Creek?  If you haven’t, you should go read my post and then let me know when you surface again.


So.  What happened in your neck of the woods last week?

If you are interested in what’s been happening in previous weeks, you can see them all here.

The Compendium / February 21

 

com·pen·di·um
/kəmˈpendēəm/
1  a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject;
concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.
a summary, epitome, or abridgment.

3  a full list or inventory: a compendium of their complaints.


Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Check out what that means to you here.


Here is a peek into our week, in no particular order:

“Things That Zack Tried to Eat This Week”

A glue stick.  He also chewed up and ate part of a plastic coat hanger…I think that the cats are trying to kill him, since they are the ones who keep providing him with these things.  Leo will deliberately throw them at Zack and then watch with interest while I wrestle them away from him.

Our prediction for last weeks weather:

And what we actually received:

Thankfully our power stayed on and it melted within two days.

I found this little beauty on one of our walks a couple of days before the ice.  Spring.  I can’t wait.

This is the bag that I take to the grocery stores with me to keep all the cold stuff in.  As soon as it is emptied I find Leo like this.  

Zack isn’t allowed to be without me during the day – yes he is worse than an infant – so I find Koshka on his bed in our bedroom during the day while we are in other parts of the house.  He will NOT lay on any of the cat beds we have, but this giant dog bed is right up his alley, apparently.

If there is clean laundry to be found on a surface, you can bet there is a cat sleeping on it for me.

A perfect, tiny snowflake.

The ice or wind or both brought this little wasps nest into our yard and Zack has pounced, growled and barked at it every single time we go outside.  Denton said, Isn’t that funny how he knows it something to fear and be wary of?

I made a big batch of my perfect boiled eggs last week.  They didn’t last long.

Leo strikes again.  Sigh.

More stuff off to live at someone else’s house. I checked in with the new manager of our local Salvation Army about the candle containers.  I wanted to be sure that she didn’t just want me to recycle them.  She said, NO.  Bring them on.  She can sell them.  Win win.  Also, how do you store your Christmas ornaments?  I pick up vintage tins like the one above when I can find them.  But this one was weirdly shaped inside.  It had a depression on the top and on the inside bottom, which made the space only about an inch and a half in height.  That wasn’t enough room to hold any of my ornaments, so off it goes.I made another favorite this past week and I just realized that it wasn’t on the blog.  I’ll post the recipe on Tuesday.  It’s so, so good.dexter

On Friday I posted about the show Dexter.  Have you seen it?  Do you agree with me?  Let me know!


groceries

Groceries:  I spent our money at Walmart this week, coming in at a total of $88.93.  I was super excited to find a bag of White Lily flour marked down to $2.09!!!!  I usually can’t even find White Lily flour at our Walmart, much less find it marked down.  It was bleached and I prefer the unbleached, but I’m not going to argue at that price.

Also, do you pay cash for everything, use a debit card or a credit card?  I use our Discover card for almost everything and then pay it at soon as I get home, that way it’s just like using my debit card.  I get cash back from them and I use it for things that I was planning to buy anyway.  My last big “FREE” to me purchase with my cash back was my air fryer.  Now I’m eyeing curtains.  I am hesitating, because, cats who destroy curtains are a thing at my house….

February 20:  $88.93

February 13:  $127.09

February 6:  $102.87


January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.


So.  What happened in your neck of the woods last week?

If you are interested in what’s been happening in previous weeks, you can see them all here.

The Compendium / February 14

 

com·pen·di·um
/kəmˈpendēəm/
1  a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject;
concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.
a summary, epitome, or abridgment.

3  a full list or inventory: a compendium of their complaints.


Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Check out what that means to you here.


Here is a peek into our week, in no particular order:

“Things That Zack Tried to Eat This Week”

I have no idea what this one is or where he retrieved it from.Sorry for the blurry photo.  Again.  This dog doesn’t stand still well.  He also tries to eat everything he finds along the side of the road on our multiple daily walks.  He dragged something out of the decaying leaves the other night that was literally decomposing, but I didn’t think that you’d want to see that……

Third week in a row that we’ve gotten snow.  I am very ready for spring.  I want to plant tomatoes and peppers.  Although it is pretty.

I was looking for my extra scissors and came across these glasses in Denton’s bathroom drawer and immediately texted him a photo and said “Woohoo! I found your extra glasses” and he texted me back and said, “Those aren’t mine….”  Oops, they are an old pair of mine.  Oh well.

Things that are being re-homed.  I actually loved that Martha Stewart dog food bag, but the design was atrocious.  It was very difficult to get into.  Which was a good thing when it comes to Little Leo, but a bad thing when your 110 pound dog is dancing around you while you are trying to open it one handed and fend him off at the same time.

More things that are headed to someone else’s house….

More clothes that have now been gone through and can leave my house, except for what I’ve set aside for my nieces.

You may have seen on Instagram that I put up a blind in my bathroom this past week.  This little project has been waiting for me to complete it for almost a year.  The kittens destroyed my curtains when we brought them home, and after I took them down, I just never got around to putting this up.  How perfect a fit is that?!?  I found these at one of my local thrift shops for $6.99 for two of them.  They glide up and down like a dream, and I LOVE them.  Now to patch the holes from the hardware and then I can think about painting sometime in the next four years….There is no such thing as too many books long sleeved t-shirt

I need this shirt.  snow falling on cedars

Have you read Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson?  It was my “What I’m Reading” book last week.  I have a new book that I’m about to start and I can’t wait!


Groceries:  I spent my hard earned money at Food Lion and Walmart again this week.  The total for Food Lion came in at $15.69 and Walmart was $111.40 for our family of four.

Are your grocery stores still having problems keeping things stocked?  My local Food Lion can NOT keep chicken nuggets in their freezers.  I finally asked when they get their truck each week, so that I can make a run in on the evening that they unload to see if I can snag some to keep in the freezer.  I keep them on hand at all times for the kids to have a quick snack with.  What do keep for quick snacks?  I love my air fryer for stuff like that.

Also, they had one bag of White Lily flour and it had a HOLE in it.  That’s the only flour I use to make my biscuits, soooooooo.  Did you know that the reason White Lily makes such good biscuits is because it’s one of the few that uses soft winter wheat?  Most flour company’s use hard wheat.  If you can get your hands on some White Lily flour, you should try it!   But try to find it locally because those prices are insane.  I usually pay around $3.50 for five pounds.

February 13:  $127.09

February 6:  $102.87


January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.


So.  What happened in your neck of the woods last week?

If you are interested in what’s been happening in previous weeks, you can see them all here.

The Compendium / February 7

 

com·pen·di·um
/kəmˈpendēəm/
1  a brief treatment or account of a subject, especially an extensive subject;
concise treatise: a compendium of medicine.
a summary, epitome, or abridgment.

3  a full list or inventory: a compendium of their complaints.


Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Check out what that means to you here.


I take a lot of photos during the week.  At current count there were over 7,000 pictures on my phone.  I know.  Anything that catches my eye that I think is interesting, or just a memory that I’d like to keep.  However, they usually sit in my phone and no one sees them except me and my immediate family; when I force them to sit and look at them with me occasionally.  I do share some of them on my Instagram, in case you’d like to follow me over there.  Anywho, I thought that I would give myself a sort of week in review to look back at.  Who knows, maybe this is something I will actually remember to do each week for once!


Here is a peek into our week, in no particular order:

“Things That Zack Tried to Eat This Week”

Sorry for the blurry photo.  Denton sent me this while Liv and I were foraging for groceries.  I said, “You left him alone, didn’t you?”  And Denton replied, “I was in the bathroom!”  Doesn’t matter bucko, this dog CAN NOT be left alone.  Ever.  A new pair of glasses are coming up for Denton.

His happy place.  We got about 3 to 4 inches of snow Saturday night.  

My mama said he looks sad.  I said, it’s because I told him it was time to go inside….

This was a wet, heavy snow.

I took this photo at around 8:00 am and the snow was gone by noon.

All of the things that I dropped off at our local Salvation Army on Saturday.  Do your kids match their socks?  Liv doesn’t. So when I dropped them off, I asked if that would be a problem.  Apparently most kids don’t match their socks, because they said no problem!  Also, can you wear a sleep mask?  I have tried three different ones and I hate them all.  I can’t stand to see light when I’m sleeping.  I know, I know, close your eyes Denton says.  I just can’t stand to even slightly open my eyes and see light.  But I seriously hate these things.
Little Leo strikes again.  He lives his perfect life to throw things on the floor.  It’s a good thing I buy drinking glasses at thrift stores…..Also, the goofy dog waits for this to happen so he can try to eat all the things… I told you, he CAN NOT be left alone.  Ever.


Groceries:  I spent my hard earned money at Food Lion and Walmart this week.  The total for Food Lion came in at $19.97 and Walmart was $82.90 for our family of four.

How do you grocery shop?  I keep my beautiful, glorious garage freezer stocked with meat that I find during my grocery trips that are a super price.  That way each week when I need to fill up on fresh vegetables and fruit, I don’t have to pay full price when I want something.  It helps to keep my grocery budget within check.  How is your budget going?

February 6:  $102.87

January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.


So.  What happened in your neck of the woods last week?

If you are interested in what’s been happening in previous weeks, you can see them all here.

Projects and more projects 05.12.20

Projects and more projects 05.12.20


Are you working on long overdue projects at your house?  When I can motivate myself, I am.  This extra room in our house has had many, many purposes over the past twelve years that we’ve lived here.  I had thought that I would turn it into an extra bedroom, which is probably what we will make it before we ever sell our house sometime in the nebulous future.  But right now, I am giving it over to Liv as a studio space.  

As you can see:  it needs some help.  For the past six months I have been cramming Christmas stuff here.  I didn’t want all of my Christmas stuff to go back into the attic, because Denton and I have many “conversations” over it when I need it around Christmas time.  Our attic access isn’t one of those handy dandy, pull down jobs.  Oh no, the builders of our house, along with all of the others in our neighborhood thought it would be better to have to drag a giant ladder from the garage every time you needed to find something you have stored up there.  Sigh.

This past Christmas I informed Denton that he didn’t need to cart everything back up into the attic, which he was very pleased about.  Instead, I am taking over our Harry Potter closet.  Which has been a black hole of random things for more than a decade.  I have been putting this task off for MONTHS.  Would you like to guess how long it took me to empty the Harry Potter closet?  Thirty nine minutes.  My life if ridiculous.  I just knew it was going to take me days, to pull everything out of there and find a new home for it.

In actuality, it took a mere 39 minutes.  Crazy town.  That’s where I live.  The shelves are going to go serve their purpose in my laundry room, which will be another project, the guitar cases went to live in the den.  Denton hasn’t notice yet. 🙂   Most of the other things just needed to be recycled.  Do you keep your boxes from things you’ve bought, just in case you need to move and you’ll need the box?  Example:  Our router and a drum kit seat.  I called Denton at work and asked him that if we needed to move tomorrow would we need the box that our two year old router came in?  No and no.  Problem solved.

I love my vacuum.  Another inanimate object that has my devotion, because it does what it is supposed to do.  After emptying out the Harry Potter closet, I vacuumed it out and declared it sufficient.  You will see later that I should have mopped it too, but I will tackle that task at Christmas when I take all of this stuff out to determine what I am keeping and what is going to grace someone else’s home.  I would have decluttered it now, but my Salvation Army isn’t taking anything right now, so I decided if it all fit, it would be decluttered at Christmas this year.

Then I started on the extra room.  I started making piles of like things.  Such as:  478 empty boxes.  I have been keeping them so that when I finally get up the energy to list things in my Etsy shop I won’t have to shell out money for them at the post office.  But they can’t live in this room anymore.

I started carting Christmas stuff into the closet…..

And it all fit!  With room to grow!  hahahaha. Now that the Christmas stuff is out of the spare room, Liv and I can start assembling her studio, which will free up a LOT of room in her bedroom.  Does your house go through transformations like mine does?  When one space isn’t working anymore, we just shift and change and make it into what works for us at the time.  I wish I could go with the flow in my everyday life, like I do with shifting my furniture around!

I hope that your projects are going smoothly!  Stay safe and healthy!  You can see all of the other projects I’ve worked on here.


What are you working on right now?

Projects

Projects and more projects

Projects and more projects


When I can motivate myself these days, I am slowly going through my giant list of “to-do’s” and crossing some of them off.  Simple things that don’t actually take much of my brain power, because, I need all of my brain power to get from waking up to bedtime.  You understand.  Everyones new normal.  So here’s what I have accomplished lately.

I dragged a shelf that I had in the garage out and put a couple of couple of screws in my laundry room wall and – VOILA!  Now my laundry detergent can stop falling off of the dryer each time I do laundry.

Don’t you love my Clorox bottle?  I found that little gem at a thrift store for $0.95 about a century ago.  Sigh.  I miss finding gems at the thrift stores.

I also found this lovely basket there too at some point in the past and it holds my wool dryer balls.  I love those things.  The basket is hand painted and adorable.  Please ignore the hair.  My hair is everywhere.  I’m sorry that you have to see that.  But, it’s a reality here in my house.  Sorry again.

I have been in the process of switching out Liv’s dresser in her bedroom for what feels like 700 years.  It’s almost ready.

I had to look back in my phone to see when I bought this beauty.  It was February 10th.  Long, long ago.  As I normally do, when I spotted this gorgeous specimen, I immediately sent a photo to Liv and said “Yes or no”.  She immediately said “Yes.”  And then I called Denton and said I need you to meet me at the Salvation Army…..He was not pleased.  As usual.  Hahahaha.  $30.00 for a solid wood, lovely dresser that has beautiful handles, that she and I loved at first sight.  Oh yes.  He came right over.  It is missing a small piece of veneer that you can see below, that I will replace later when I can actually go into a store and find some that will match.  In the meantime, we don’t care that it’s missing.

I also replaced another light fixture in my downstairs hallway.

I had found the one I wanted to put up down there a couple of years ago for $3.99 and just put it in the garage until I had a few minutes to take the other one down.  And then I forgot about it.  The other one worked, I just liked the new to me linen one that I found on one of my hunts a lot more.

Man, I need to take the vacuum to my ceiling downstairs…..Or we can just call it “Antique lace” like Hayden and Liv’s Aunty Crystal does and move on…… And that’s what I’ve actually gotten accomplished over the last couple of weeks.  I have other projects I’m working on right now, and as soon as I get them completed I’ll show you here!

Stay safe and healthy!  You can see all of the other projects I’ve worked on here.

What are you working on right now?

Projects

Projects and more projects

How are you passing the gift of all of this time?  That’s how I am choosing to look at this.  A gift.  A gift that I should use to get all of the un-done projects completed at my house that have been waiting in the wings for way too long.

When I can keep my mind from wandering that is.  That happens a LOT.  I’ll start one teeny tiny project, see something else that needs to be done right NOW, and switch over to that.  So, I am making lists for myself.

It works sometimes. 😀   Here are some of the ones that I have actually gotten done so far!

I decided that I needed to get that one last piece of the landing in place so that I could put the trim back up.  There was a reason I had been putting it off….It took me almost two and a half hours to get that last piece cut to the proper width.  The length wasn’t a problem.  But its done!  Yay!  Don’t look at the stairs, just don’t.  It’s on the list.  While I had the paint out, I thought to myself, I should get that small bookcase painted.  I had bought it ages, and ages ago.  I think I may have paid around $3 for it, more than likely because it looked so bad. Liv wandered through about the time I started to paint and asked, Don’t you need to clean that thing first?  And I told her, This has been cleaned!  Pitiful little thing.

I had the perfect spot for it outside my kitchen where I had been piling my number one “to be read” stack of books, a la Martha Stewart style.  It always looks so much better at her house, doesn’t it? It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do.I’ve had one hook outside my shower for years now.  And I constantly put way too many things on it.I’ve also had these two cute ostrich head hooks floating around my house for a couple of years now with no real purpose.  Now they have a purpose…And my shower hook isn’t overloaded anymore.  This project took approximately 49 seconds to accomplish.  Sigh.

Last but not least.My dresser.  You’ll have to use your imagination and “see” this poor thing piled as high as the sky with clothes, random bits of things that did not even belong in our bedroom, because either I forgot to take a before or I deleted it by accident.  It wasn’t pretty.I have been resisting doing this project, because I knew I needed to take EVERYTHING out and do a major purge of all the things.  I hesitate to do things KonMari style because I get so overwhelmed with how much stuff I still have.  And probably do NOT need.  But I set aside an entire day and worked drawer by drawer.I LOVE having my t-shirts folded this way.  It’s so easy to see what I have and what I don’t.  I’m also going to try this with my pajamas too and I’ll let you know how it goes.I took out everything, and anything that said NO way am I ever putting you on my body again, went into a bag to dealt with another day.  Everything else needed a designated drawer or things like swimsuits that I only wear once a year went into a basket to live on the top shelf of my closet.  Why in the world I was letting them take up space in my drawers is beyond my comprehension. It was a long, tedious day, with many, many breaks for my mental health, but at the end of it all my bed was clear and everything was put away where it belongs.  Also yes, that IS another “to be read” pile of books!  Which is another project to add to my ever expanding list, because this pile drives me bonkers.  It was a great idea at the time, but I constantly knock them off and have to pick them up again.Another project I need to check with my Mama about.  I want to change out the pulls on this dresser, but I don’t know which ones are the originals on this piece.  It was my Mama’s Mother’s dresser and it has two different styles of pulls.  Wooden ones and metal pulls on the bottom drawer.

Another side note:  don’t you love my monkey?  He is quite ancient.  My cousin who is almost twenty years older than I am gave it to me when I was about two years old.  Thank you Johnny Ray for that sweet gift, he has been well loved.

Well, that’s it for my week and the projects.  The best part about all of these projects is that I had everything on hand to get them done.  Mostly my time.  Are you working on projects during this time of isolation?  If I can just stay on track, I may get quite a lot more accomplished!  Good luck to us all.

You can see all of the other projects I’ve worked on here.

Stay safe.  Tracie

Decluttering: The end of the Year 2019

Welcome to the final decluttering session of 2019!  A couple of days before the start of the New Year, I made one final sweep of the towering mountain in the corner of my bedroom and took out everything I could get my hands on.  It felt really good.  Except, we have already started building the mountain of 2020.  I need to get on that right now, so that it doesn’t turn into Mt. Everest like it did last year.  Sigh.

Anyhoo, let’s see what I ushered out in the last few breaths of 2019:

My magazines.  Of course.  I love my magazine pile.  Its a never ending supply of ideas, recipes, articles and just easy reading when I don’t feel like devoting brain power to a story.

I culled through my cookbooks again.  I’m getting better at this.  It’s not nearly as painful as I thought it was a year ago.  Probably because I’ve read all of these multiple times and I know that I have at least 500 more cookbooks to go.  Possibly.  Maybe.  Yes.

As I brought out my Christmas stuff this year, I started setting aside things that I knew I was not going to use again.  I have A LOT of Christmas stuff to go through still….

More Christmas, books, photo frames, one of Oreo’s bones that he didn’t get to have…..

And now we come to the last of Hayden’s contributions.  At least from his last go through. 

T-shirts.  How can looking at t-shirts make a person want to cry? 

My little boy is not a little boy anymore, that’s why.

He is no longer a teenager either….

But he loves his Mama.

And holy cow he had a LOT of t-shirts.

He still does, just not this many…..

And I even found more stuff at the bottom of the mountain that Liv had pulled out to donate.

It felt like a lot.  It looked like a lot when we got it loaded into the Pilot to send away to the Salvation Army.

It feels so good each time I take the stuff that we no longer need in our house, OUT of the house.  I finally like my house.  When I come home and walk into the living room, I like the way my house FEELS now.  There are still many, many things that I know I want to remove, and other things I am on the lookout for that I want to be in this space.

Side note:  Denton begged me not to bring anything else into the house until I complete some of my projects – the state of the garage is terrible at the moment.  A lovely vintage work bench is what prompted this beseechment.  This little beauty caught mine and Olivia’s eyes last week when we went into the city.  It’s the perfect height for her to use as a standing desk and it has heavy duty, tool storage pull out drawers to put all of her crafting supplies in.  For $29.99.  We snatched it right up.  Much to Denton’s dismay.  He’s terrified that our “projects” are going to start creeping into his section of the garage…..

Anyway, my point is this:  we are about to gut Liv’s room and turn it into a space that works for her now.  We haven’t changed her room at all since she was about 10 years old, so it’s time.  And I didn’t have to pay $1,000.00 for something that is perfect for her space, since someone donated this thing that no longer worked for them.  It’s going to work brilliantly for her.

In the meantime, I will enjoy the fact that I sent away to someone else’s home things that will be useful to them, that we no longer needed.

Are you still decluttering?  It’s a process at my house!

You can see all of the other projects I’ve worked on here.

 

Decluttering as I buy.

Liv and I were in Ross’ last week so that she could pick up more canvas for her latest project and I spied this little gem. For $3.00. I snatched it up immediately. Liv pointed out that I did NOT need another Christmas decoration. This is true. 🙄

However, I do like these glass soap dispensers much more than the plastic ones that I get at the dollar tree, Bath and Body works or in the case of my latest purchase of liquid soap Aldi.

So I purchased both of these little lovelies with the full knowledge that as soon as I take the brand new wrapper off of them, the gold, glittery sleigh will go straight into my donation box without a backward glance.

Decluttering at its finest. Yes, I brought it into my house, but it doesn’t have to stay here.

I got exactly what I wanted and someone else can snatch up the little sleigh for another use.

Also, through the magic of the internet you can’t see all of the dirty dishes in my sink. They are there though…..