Organizing Stuff

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to arrange things, re-arrange them, organize stuff, reorganize stuff, de-clutter things and basically make the energy in my space flow comfortably and easily.  I think part of it may be a little obsessive / compulsive disorder-like, but for the most part I think it has to do with needing a tidy space where I can locate what I am after.

 

Today I spent some quality time with some of my family (more about that in another post) and then after I had tidied the kitchen and done my dishes, I got to tackle one of the BEST organization projects (for me) to date.

 

This particular project started last weekend when my WONDERFUL Sister in Law let me know she was going to be going to IKEA while on a work trip and asked me if there was anything I wanted her to pick up for me. I let her know that I absolutely DID have a couple of things in mind and then, when I got off the phone from our call, I promptly forgot about the IKEA trip. 

 

My Sister in Law must have a sixth sense - she sent me an email the day before leaving letting me know that if there was anything I wanted to just email her the spec numbers... God bless her for that!  I immediately got onto the IKEA website and emailed her the spec number for what I needed... what I have actually been looking for for roughly the last year.

 

When I moved into my house, one of the things I immediately appreciated was the HUGE kitchen cupboards - massive!  What I realized shortly after taking possession of the house was that the HUGE kitchen cupboards weren't 100% conducive to true kitchen organization. 

 

So what have I needed, and been looking for for the last year or so? Shelf Inserts. Yes, truly, I have been looking and not finding anything sturdy enough to do the job.  Short of buying lumber and building them myself I just wasn't getting anywhere.

 

So Carrie, bless her forever and ever, picked up 8 shelf inserts for me.  Thanks to Carrie (and in small part to IKEA for having organization stuff that people like me need) I now have kitchen cupboards that look like this:

Organized!  Woo hoo!!

Ah the bliss of organization!

With love across the waters,

Two Things Left on the Feng Shui List and Summer Fruit Fun

One week finished on the 2012 Summer vacation and I’m afraid I haven’t done anything terribly exciting to report.  I have, however, knocked one more item off of my Feng Shui list of cures, and started summer fruit and vegetable stocking for winter consumption.

Feng Shui update first:

This week I was able to, finally, complete another Feng Shui cure for my home – something quite simple, actually, but not something I was able to easily get done as I don’t have a table saw.  You just raised your eyebrows, didn’t you?

Over my front stairs there is a hole – sort of an attic type of hatch, if you will.  I’m sure there was a hatch cover there at one time, but when I took possession of the house said hatch was long gone and so all that was visible was a hole over my stairs.  A good place to store things, incidentally – as I found out this week when I pulled out my step ladder and looked up there wondering if the original hatch might actually be up there and just pushed aside.  Nope.  Another (dust covered) picture, a couple of tennis rackets and some odds and ends, but no hatch.

Anyhow, this week I spent an overnight at my mum & Dad’s house and Dad cut me a hatch.  I had some plywood I was willing to take down with me, but he had some scraps on hand and didn’t need it.  Hatch cut, when I got home I did a Three Secrets reinforcement and installed the hatch.

My Teacher and Feng Shui friend, Terri Perrin, has the Three Secrets Reinforcement method described on her website – and as Terri has taught me, this reinforcement is an excellent way to set intention when a cure is being put into place.  Here’s the link to Terri’s site.

This leaves two final cures for me to complete.  It’s been nearly a year since I moved into the house and so nearly a year since I had Terri’s consultation and started the process of putting the cures into place.  The two left aren’t big or scary and will be hardly noticeable to anyone casually observing my home… there have been far more significant changes to the house and yard in the last 11 months, but over the last 11 months things have slowly come together in and around the house from an energetic perspective. Have things changed? Yes. Drastically? Not that anyone other than me would notice, but this process has actually been all about me, so I have noticed BIG changes.

I’m hopeful that some time in the next month or so I may be able to obtain the materials needed for the last two cures.  I’m not in a financial position to just go out there and buy things, so I am asking the universe to supply me with what I need – a water feature (I am thinking a solar-run water fountain or maybe a bird bath) and a window (36” by about 24” should do nicely!) – OH - and for the window, someone to help me install it.

Ha ha ha!

In October Terri is holding a workshop which I am saving some money to attend – creating and filling a Wealth Vase with intention.  Wealth and abundance are always appreciated and anything to help “tweak” that will come in handy.  If you are in the Comox Valley and interested in attending, I encourage you to check out Terri’s site for more information.  I know she only had 12 spaces initially available and at this point there might be a spot or two left, but then again, there might not!

Ok… on to the Fresh Summer Fruit Fun.

I LOVE summer fruit – nectarines, peaches, strawberries, cherries, plums and on and on and on… Local fruit is starting to hit the shops and fruit stands now and sometimes the prices are great for stockpiling. I’m planning to build a raised garden bed before the end of October – I will need one as Mum is going to give me some garlic to plant… and then come spring I’ll put in beans and tomatoes and whatnot…

Anyhow, down at Mum and Dad’s place things are starting to ripen and get put up for winter.  I came home with a great handful of beans (don’t know what kind) which last night I chopped up, blanched, froze on a cookie sheet overnight and then bagged and put into the chest freezer today.

I did some grocery shopping this morning and picked up a case of 18 freestone Okanagan peaches for $9.99.  Tomorrow I will start processing them.  Eventually I will can them, but until I get my hands on canning supplies (like, well, everything!) I will freeze them similarly to how I processed the beans.  Come October I’ll process all of my frozen plums into jam and can the peaches and likely my pears at that point too. 

That will be my first canning ever and I’m looking forward to learning a new skill that will allow me to put up my own fruits and vegetables in such a way that I can enjoy my own produce all year ‘round. I’m hopeful I may be able to trade some of my apples (down the road) for other fruits and vegetable that I can put up.  Between freezing, dehydrating, and canning, I’m thinking I should be able to become fairly self-sufficient with longer term storage of fruits and vegetables.

Anyhow, for now, I’m looking forward to having a freezer full of yummy summer goodness that will keep my face smiling in the winter. 

Peaches and ice cream anyone?

With love across the waters,

Back Yard: 20 August 2011 & 10 July 2012

And same for the back yard - what a world of difference!

And...

Front yard: 16 October 2011 & July 9 2012

These kind of speak for themselves:

16 October 2011

9 July 2012

Progress – Indoors and Out… and a Little April Feng Shui

This was a “me at home doing stuff” weekend. 

Yesterday I spent the morning and part of the early afternoon outside – mowing grass, raking up tree debris, digging up (yes, you guessed it) more dandelions and generally enjoying the activity.  In the afternoon I had a shower, made some granola, puttered around and just relaxed.  Last night I got the bright idea that I would rent the wall paper steamer for the day and just get rid of the rest of the wall paper and the little strips of under-paper that had been left behind on the living room wall during the last wall paper removal go around.

Today I slept in until after 7:30 AM (I know it may not sound like much, but it is!) and then had coffee.  The tool rental place opened at 7 and so, once dressed, I loaded Jasmine into the car & we headed into town and rented the wall paper steamer AND the big scary hole poking thing-a-ma-jig.

Three solid hours later ALL of the rest of the wall paper was off the bedroom and living room walls. My bathroom, mind you, still looks like it has some sort of exotic disease, but still, the stuff I needed gone is totally gone.

I spent a little time after the floors had been vacuumed and the furniture was put back in making a couple more Feng Shui related tweaks to my bedroom – in the form of a pair of pictures over the bed and the removal of one of the two mirrors I had placed in there.  Now in place of the second mirror is a photo I took a couple of years ago when I was on vacation in Saint Malo, France.

Next up in the project work for me department will be the final prep of the living room walls for painting, the painting of said walls and then the removal of the ghastly turquoise carpets from the living room and the little hall between the bedrooms.

Next up for “major” project work will be having my new front door installed:

With love across the waters,

My Shoulders Are Sore But…

The composting system is now installed!

Before I go into the tales of today, I should share some thoughts on the placement of my new compost bin from a Feng Shui perspective.  The Earth Machine composter was just on the edge of my Creativity & Children and my Relationship & Love sectors of the yard.  The space I had available there was just not big enough to house the new composting system and I needed to locate another place that would be practical, not terribly visible and also, hopefully, not detrtimental.

I have placed the new compost bin (which is rectangular in shape and mostly made of wood) on the edges of my Family and Prosperity zones.  Right in the centre of my Family zone is a big leafy green shrub and right in the centre of my Prosperity zone is a very healthy Damson Plum tree - about to burst forth in white blossoms, but the fruit is a gorgeous bright reddy-purple colour.

The sector of the yard it is now in is represented by:

• the colours green, red and purple
• the shapes vertical, columnar or rectangular
• the wood element
• the symbolism for new growth, expansion, vitality, energy and determination

So... I am looking at the placement from the practical standpoint that this was the most reasonable location it could be positioned in, and from the Feng Shui standpoint that, with a couple of minor cures, it can also be a major enhancement to my family and prosperity zones. With the help of Mother Nature and her extremely industrious earthworms, this will be a healthy and productive addition to my yard.

The plan was to use old lumber pallets, zap straps and lengths of re-bar.  I started by collecting lumber pallets.  I saved the top pieces from my picnic table to use as shoring up pieces, and once I had enough lumber pallets (7 for the double composter I was planning to build) I got my hands on some six-foot lengths of re-bar and some extra large and heavy-duty zap straps.

Some of the lumber pallets

Lumber pallet and Earth Machine Composter

Pieces of two-by-fours

This morning, after coffee outside in the sunshine, I started the project by putting the first two pallets in place.

The beginning - the first two pallets in place

The first length of re-bar was hammered down in between them and then I put the re-bar at the ends.  After the two back pieces were put in place, I muscled the sides & centre pallet into place, zap-strapped them to the re-bar posts and hammered in the next 3 lengths of re-bar.

Cross-Pieces in place

Note to self: sledge hammering one handed while holding the re-bar in place makes shoulders very sore.  I mean VERY sore - like I need an ibuprofen kind of sore.

I made a mistake here and zap-strapped the front pieces on… but when I started to move the material from my little Earth Machine composter over to the big compost, well, I took the front panel off of the left-side of the composter so that I could just dump the wheelbarrow directly into it. MUCH easier.

All done?

Look how much space there is there!

Front panel back on, I worked on cleaning the yard up a little and when I stepped around the front of my house I discovered that a friend from work had left me a couple of small rhubarb plants at my front door – so I pulled the shovel back out and planted the new rhubarb in the recently vacated old compost spot.

Rhubarb plant happily ensconced in old composter spot

When I was digging out the old composter, I saw loads of giant, juicy fat worms (which I happily transplanted along with the compost to the new bin.

Today also saw me acquire (from my neighbours) some new plants for my yard.

First up is some Lovage, which is a tall perennial plant whose leaves can be used in soups and salads, roots can be grated up and eaten like vegetables and tea made from the leaves can be used as an antiseptic.  The seeds can evidently also be used like a spice – VERY versatile! It smells sort of like celery. It can grow quite tall (between 5’ and 8’) and can be used as hedging.  I have planted it into a bare spot along one of my side fences and in that spot it will provide some privacy for both me and the neighbours.

Next up was some Crocosmia – they have ling spiky leaves and orange flowers & look like something that hummingbirds might like!

Last but not least is a pot of garlic chives, which will be placed into one of the two very large planters that I have reserved for something but not got anything of import planted in at this time.

All this work done, I came inside, showered and am now going to relax on my sofa for the rest of my evening.

Big day tomorrow – my Demxx delivery is arriving around 9:45 in the morning – so my new front door and 8 bales of insulation will need to be stored until I can have the door installed and I can get the insulation up into the attic and lay it out.

With love across the waters,

Making plans…

Sunday and Monday of this past weekend were both rather nasty days here – April 1^st saw about 2CM of snow on the ground (really, no kidding!) when I finally rolled out of bed, and though it proved to be a sunny morning, rain started in the early evening here and continued heavily almost all day Monday.

Sunday night, at a loss for things that I actually WANTED to do, I sat down and started planning home renovations. I should point out that at this point in time, all I will be doing is planning since money is tight and renovations come in at the end of the list of things requiring doing that are actually POSSIBLE to do… but regardless of when and where money comes from (maybe I’ll win the lottery?) planning is free.

I sat down with some graph paper and drafted up a plan to tackle the badly designed closet space that the two bedrooms in my house actually have.

For reference, the space I’m working with is a single closet in my bedroom and a weirdly laid out closet and inset in the front bedroom – combined the space would be a room that would be roughly 5’5” by about 7’. I’m not entirely certain how a family of four managed for 30 years with this kind of closet space!  

My thought is to use ALL of this wasted space and create a single walk in closet in between the two rooms (accessed using pocket doors,) to have a functional and practical clothes hanger system AND build in a shelving \ drawer combination unit (floor to ceiling) that will have sides facing out in both rooms.  And, of course, have lighting inside it so that items can be seen!

Sidebar: Eventually I also intent to install a queen-sized Murphy bed (side fold up) and an additional window in the front bedroom – but that will be a few years out.

Where possible, my plan is to do all of the demolition and most of the construction myself.  I’ll have a professional look at the space AND my plans and tell me if it’s going to bring the roof down around my ears, of course, but all in all (aside from the drywall) it shouldn’t be TOO hard to build what I have planned.

The other space I’m looking at drafting up plans for is my bathroom \ laundry room.  They sit side by side in the house – the challenge that I think I may have, though, is that the wall separating them is the original outside wall – which I think would make it a supporting wall.  Again, before I think to do anything major I will have a professional look at the space AND my plans and tell me if I am being realistic.

My thought with that space was to make a combination room.  One large space (with an actual window!!) that would house the bathroom and laundry facilities (as well as the hot water tank) and perhaps make the space MUCH more functional that it currently is.

I think, though, that the destruction / construction of this particular room would be much better left to professionals, and that it would be best planned to be executed while I am on vacation and away from the house for at least 2 weeks so that bathing and doing laundry isn’t a major problem!

Small steps forward, though.  The next things that are planned are to have the rest of the crap taken out of the yard and then to have my 8 bales of insulation (for my attic) and new front door delivered.  After that, the new front door will need to be installed.

Hm.  I wonder if I should paint the front door before or after it goes in? What do you think?  And yes, I am finally going to have my RED front door!

Ok… On that note, I think its time to have a hot bath and get myself ready for bed – morning seems to come early these days and, if it’s a nice morning, I’m planning to take Jasmine out first thing for a bike ride \ run.  Me on the bike, her running.

With love across the waters,

Accomplishment

This weekend I managed to knock a few more things off of my "to do" list.  

After pumping up the tires on my bike on Sunday, I went out for the first ride of the season. I was a little smarter this time than I was when I went for my first ride last year (what was also my first bike ride in close to 25 years) and limited myself to less than 5 KM.  I was wearing my bike shorts and a pair of Capri pants bought especially for bike riding, and Jasmine and I took it easy & had a good time. I’m a little tender in parts today, but that’s totally to be expected – next ride is planned for Wednesday after work – thank GOD for Daylight Savings!!

Once the ride was done, I put the bike away and decided that it would be really smart if I took advantage of the clear weather to get outside and get some more of my yard work looked after. This included planting the gorgeous Coral Bark Maple that my parents gave me as a housewarming present when I first moved in... I then spent tome cutting down the trellis and wisteria vine (and another one of the badly growing shrubs at the front of the house) and then cleaning up the rest of the garden bed under the eaves. 


There was a GOOD interesting find (not like finding the leprosy dolphins!) of an antique pressing iron – the kind that would be heated on the top of a wood stove and then used to iron and press any concept of wrinkles into submission! I brought it inside and scrubbed it down a little - it is now sitting on top of my wood stove.  I will try and scrub it down a little more - to take off the rest of the rust, but honestly, this is up there with the cloth-backed wallpaper on my personal coolness-meter.

Anyhow, I then got on with emptying out and getting rid of some of the planters that were at the front of the house and replanting some of the items that were homed in temporary pots.  I’m pretty much in “wait and see” mode this year – seeing exactly what it is that my yard and gardens yield.  In chatting with my neighbour yesterday, I learned that there is a colony of out of control Jerusalem Artichokes near my garden shed – edibles that evidently work more like a potato than an artichoke - and so I will have a few things to harvest this time around. I know there is also some lemon balm and a container that has strawberries in it – but much more than that, I’m not certain of.

I also learned that, if I'm planning on planting of anything, I need to check in with him (the neighbour) first, before I go out & buy plants - he quite often divides items and then donates them to the local garden group that puts on Seedy Saturdays (almost all of which I will miss because I work on Saturdays) and has told me that he is more than happy to pass things over the back fence to me, as and if I would like!

Sunday's day of accomplishment was followed by a WONDERFUL home-made Indian food dinner with good friends, after which I did a quick grocery shopping on my way home - and not surprising, grocery stores are EMPTY after 7PM on a Sunday night and so this may be my new favourite time to go get my groceries!!

Since I added to it again yesterday, the next pile of crap to be taken away to the dump is slowly getting larger. Removal will need to be arranged fairly soon - and in fact, with the exception of the all weather carpet that is on my front steps (yes, all weather carpet, on the front steps!) I think it is pretty much ready to be hauled away.

For today, though, I hung out in the house, relaxed on the sofa and contented myself with cuddles with each of my pets and a little light reading.  All in all, a productive weekend that is ending with a quiet and restful night!

With love across the waters,

Feng Shui Update: Springtime, Abundance & New Love

Today is the last day of my February vacation week – back to work tomorrow.  Typical to me, I came down with the dreaded “Holiday Head Cold” and so have “lost” two lovely sunny days of potential yard work. Feeling somewhat better today, I decided that a good thing for me to do, in spite of the lingering runny nose, was to get myself outside and start working on the back yard.

As mentioned, my friend Dave came by last weekend and cleared out all of the excess debris and crap that I had piled at the back of the yard.  Looking out there I decided that, since nature abhors a vacuum, I would move some more things that need to be removed to the back yard and fence line in order to have it all ready for the next bout of crap removal. 

Gloves and jacket on, I got Jasmine and we went out into the yard and began by pulling all of the leaves and grass that I had piled into the flower beds as mulch.  I know that the fact that it’s all been rotting in is a very good thing – the soil and seedlings have been pulling great nutrients out of it and that now is the time that it needs to all be pulled out so that the mysterious little plants coming up can be seen.  We’re still frosty and freezing overnight, but let’s face it - anything growing here has been here for a number of years now, survived a number of winters and is hearty enough to have soil laid bare for sunshine to warm it by now.

I have dragged all of the ugly statuary out, pulled off the Astroturf that was on the cement pad & piled up a few other things to have hauled away.  It’s not pretty, but it makes a great new obstacle course for Jasmine to run circles around when she gets a good case of the sillies. 

Now all I need is my BBQ...

NEW pile of twigs & brush.

MUCH smaller pile of crap - to be continued...

Mentally planning ahead, I also scoped out the space where I want to put my vegetable patch (next summer?) and am decided on where my herbs will be planted as well as finally decided on where my compost bin system will go. Can’t do much more than plan right now as I need more $$, more time off and longer warmer days – all of which are speeding their way to me.

Springtime seems (to me anyhow) to be the best example of Feng Shui and the law of abundance.  One of the first things learned when starting to delve into Feng Shui is cleaning up and de-cluttering.  Today’s foray into the back yard was all about that. Flower beds cleaned out, more dead branches culled (and more clutter removed and piled up for final removal) cleared way for the new green shoots that are pushing through the soil – loads of buds starting to come out on trees and shrubs, the smell of green in the air

Pushing forth into the world

I *think* these might be irises...

Totally uncertain what these are...

VERY interesting... again, NO idea whatsoever!!

Even the trees and shrubs are working on waking up

New life on my plum tree

I think that, how I feel right this second (looking at my yard and thinking of the smell of fresh earth) must be how my Mum feels in the spring when she looks at her yard... and how my Grannie felt every spring - I am in tune with the feeling of my own personal sap rising.

From a Feng Shui perspective, my yard is ready to pull in all sorts of abundant energy for me now… and, hopefully, more love energy too!

And speaking of love energy, this week I welcomed a new little bit of love into my world and home. She hasn’t got a name yet, but she’s making a place for herself. 

Jasmine and No Name Yet under my bed...
Jasmine trying REALLY hard to get up close and personal

No Name Yet... 

With love across the waters,

Some Before and After Shots...

I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I work all day.
I cut down trees, I wear high heels
Suspenders and a Bra.
(OK - this is where I modify the song.)
I am a pretty girlie, just like my dear mama!

Monday was a lumberjack day for me.  I had the last tree cut down in the front yard and I cut down another one in the back yard.

Monday was glorious outside - a day where, when blessed to be off, one naturally gravitates outside. Lucky for me, it was also a day where my friend the tree faller (and yes, he's the one I have a terrible crush on) came over with his chainsaw and chopped down the final front yard tree, and then used said chainsaw to cut a HUGE stump down to ground.  So... you may recall - when I bought the house, the front looked like this:

And then, in October, my folks came up for a day - I had already cut down the small fir touching the house - and my Dad helped me pull all of the wisteria off off the front of the house... it then looked like this:

Now, after Monday's efforts, the front of my home is wide open and looks like this:

The big pile of branches in front of the house is all that remains of the tree that was removed.

In addition to cutting down the tree (which was growing up into both power and telephone lines and actually HAD to come down, my friend the faller also helped level out a stump - a BIG stump - that was actually hidden by the tree that was taken out.  My best guess is that it was once a HUGE maple tree -  the stump was cut into two pieces - two BIG pieces - which I ended up rolling over & stacking up beside my front door - this is about 3 feet high, by the way.

The stump (again, I *think* it may be maple) looked like it is spalted - so my dad has said he'll take the stump pieces and see what he can save & turn, here's a shot of what spalting does to raw wood:

After cutting down of stuff was done, my friend headed off (incidentally, to buck up firewood for me) and I got to work piling up other stuff:

Then, into the back yard.

When I bought the house, the back yard looked like this.  This picture is taken standing on the patio facing the back fence - note the metal arbour:

The Sumac on both sides were taken out in October when Dad came up.  Bearing in mind that the trees and shrubs still there are all without leaves for the winter, but this is what it looks like now:

The yard does look very bare and open right now, but once the trees start to bush out with leaves again, my privacy will come back and the yard will be absolutely gorgeous!  An added bonus, now that the other evergreen is gone, is that the pond's full prettiness is exposed. I'm thinking a couple of water lilies and some goldfish (to eat the mosquito larvae) will be perfect back there.

Finally we come to the piles. Stuff to be hauled away to the dump, and piles of branches and other pieces of various trees and shrubbery - all to be hauled out into the bush to be allowed to rot gently back into the earth. I had considered hiring a chipper, but am told that the branches are too curvy for that - so off to rot in the forests it is.

With love across the waters,

Small Change - BIG difference...

About two weeks ago the ugly old blue horizontal blinds in my bedroom gave up the ghost in style.  The metal contraption that controls the ability to pull the blind up and down (by way of the string) popped right out of its little hole and the blind flopped down against the wall like an ugly blue dead fish.

I have Made Do with it for a couple of weeks while trying to decide what would be the best looking and (more importantly) cheapest way to go.  Drapes? This would require a curtain rod being installed. Another plastic horizontal blind, but maybe white this time? This would require the removal of the blue plastic one's hardware.

All I knew to this point was that whatever I put in would NOT be blue.

Home Depot run happened yesterday - to pick up some things and check out options. I elected to go with curtains - and found some lovely suede-like ones that block out about 95% of the light when closed. A simple curtain rod topped off the purchase and, oh yes, I got a stud finder that tells me where the centre of the stud is and also identifies metal AND electrical stuff... so I won't accidentally drill into wiring.

Without further ado, here's my updated bedroom.  Yes, I do still need to get down the last of the wallpaper, patch and then primer and THEN paint - but the difference already is amazing.

SO much brighter without the nasty blue blinds!

Also moved a mirror - yeah, I don't need 2 in there...

And also moved my bracelet / necklace rack my Dad made me... 

Maybe not a Feng Shui change, per-se, but a very much needed change and, now done, the room is closer to the "positive space" energy I want.

Next up...? Today's projects included replacing the bathtub grout (GROSS!!!) and cutting down trees! Want to guess which was more fun?

With love across the waters,