Oh No! Not the Tail!

Today started much like any other Sunday... relaxing cuppa, sitting chatting with hubby.
We are revelling in the recent rain because with it comes a lower temperature and a lovely cool breeze.

And that lovely cool breeze is the casue of our morning troubles... it blew the front door shut.  Hard. And Fast.  Eddie the 11month old catten (between a kitten and a cat) was sitting with us, on the cabinet, by the door, with his TAIL hanging down.

I think you can see where this is going....

Said door slams shut on the end of Eddie's tail!

yep blood, fur and end of tail no longer attached to cat... trip to the vet... surgery to amputate the end of his tail since it is broken, the bone is exposed and the skin and fur is pulled off (cat pulled his tail out of door)  

It is all rather distressing.

We will get our dear Eddie back tomorrow with a bit less tail. ... and a lot less bank balance.

I will probably be able to see the humourous side when my adrenaline and distress settles a bit.  It all happened right in front of me and the dear cat didn't even make a noise, he just pulled his tail out of the door and shuddered.

Teen 2 accompanied me t the vet with the cat box on her lap and stroking a distressed cat who just wanted to be as close to her as he could be. (there seems to be a pattern here... me driving and injured animal to the vet, teen 2 beside me with said animal in box on her lap)

She also wins the comment of the day award.  When the vet said he would need to amputate the end of Eddie's tail teen2 said, "Not his tail! That's his pride and joy!"

Eddie last week just disturbed from sleep.

yep that kinda sums it all up.  she is right too, it is his pride and joy.  only now it will be somewhat a shorter pride and joy.  Maybe he won't leave it hanging down where it can get caught, or stepped on, or be quite so inclined to swish it under the dog's nose, or wrap it around averyone and everything, or walk with it straight up in the air, or, or, or.... maybe not.  

speaking of his pride and Joy... yep, it's usually in the air.

 

hubby was 'encouraging' him down from the rafters.

 

playing with a ball on the end of string.

Beads

I like shiny things.  I like them a lot. 
I like pretty, shiny things.
I like pretty, shiny, sparkly, dangly ear rings.

I don't like spending a lot of money.  Anything that will save me some hard earned $$ helps...

It stated out innocently enough... I attended a jewellry party.  Not just the regular party where you see all sorts of pretties and part with your cash.  Noooo a party where they put the pretty, shiny beads on the table in front of you with a few tools and say, "Pick a few that you like and we will show you how to put them together."  Ohhhhh

"It is really very simple.  Thread them on the bit of wire, wrap it like thus and there you have it.  Now pop it on this hook and voila, pretty earrings."  OOOOOOww

hey, it's fun... and easy... and not as expensive as the pretties in the stores... I could get to like this...

"Now who will book a party?"

I don't do the whole party plan thing ... but this isn't really a party now... it's more of a class than a party ... with a few frineds, and food... yeah I know a few friends  who might like to have a go.  "I'll have one."

time passes...

... Now how do I make it do this??
Oh that tool, hmm, better get one of those too. 
Oh and if I get that then I can put it with this... and make another lovely pair of earrings.  
But I need to get a few beads to make some more. 
these would make great gifts... and they will save me money since I can make it myself... 
Just a packet of beads, here and there. 
....oooh that's pretty  
....I have this, but I don't have any beads to co-ordinate with it
....Oh look at that, it's on speacial...
...now I need a way to store all this...
...hmmm I need another box for all this...
Oh dear!

how did it get sooooo BIG?

I think I have a few beads...

Honest, I didn't mean for it to get like this...

 

 Now if I can just work out a way to tame the monster?...

  

 Oh dear... it really is tooooo much.

 

There's only one thing for it...

It

is

time

to

cull!

Stay tuned for the next episode...

cute clutter

What do you do with all those cute little things that we seem to acquire?

You know, little gifts, mementos, travel trinkets, bits of favourite but now broken jewellery, crafts, sweet gift cards,  mothers/fathers day treasures, thank you gifts, book marks, cute key tags (you already have 6 but here's another one), tokens, ticket stubs (it was a fab concert, game etc) fund raiser bitsas, photos ...

In our declutter I have been wondering what to do with many of such items.  They are clutter... but they are NICE clutter.  A while ago teen1 came up with a clever solution... decorate the bedroom door with it.  It sort of becomes a visual diary, a 3D work of art, an everdeveloping depiction of moments... and a neat way to get stuff out of boxes, drawers etc giving it a purpose.  

my bedroom door  

(oops blurry pic)

It took me a while for the idea to grow on me, but now I like it a lot.  I especally like that I get to see all those little treasures and most of the bits have a story.  ...and I do like a good story.  It gives me a little smile when I see it. 

Here are a couple of close-ups of my door.

 

  

Whatever was I thinking

We are  not gardeners.

Never have been and most likely never will be.  Most houses we have lived in I have made some kind of attempt at tending to any plants which were there and I have on occasioons made an effort to plant flowers or to do a bit with a garden. 

Our last home had lots of garden beds. Lots. There was a big one at the front which I cleared of its weeds and planted a mass planting of Agapanthus.  It was great.  Green all the tme, weeds coudn't grow, lovely purple flowers in summer.  Very little time or effort required for maintenance.  Just my kind of gardening. 

The week before Christmas I bid on and won a heap-big-lot of plants!  Bargain.  On the Saturday before Christmas as we were driving out to collect the plants, my dear hubby asked, "Whatever were you thinking?"  what indeed!

It was hot, it hadn't rained for ages, we were about to go away for a fortnight and we aren't into gardening. 

Just as we finished loading up the trailer and every inch of the car (just as well none of the teens came with us), down came the rain.  wonderful, blessed rain.  It rained our best rain in months and didn't stop for nearly a week.

Many, many plants came to LIVE at our house. Here is the trailer load all happily soaking up the rain.

We don't garden...

No, this family DOESN'T garden!

Even when it looks like it.

We still went away for two weeks, many plants had new homes in our garden, with some mulch AND it continued to rain for most of the two weeks.

whatever was I thinking indeed. :)

Timer

I have mentioned using timers a few times recently and have had several people ask me about it. Here is the low down...

Some time ago it was suggested that we use a timer to help our daughter to focus on a task and get it done.  We had a regular digital kitchen timer and she was using it to do homework or tidy her room or any task really.  It helped.  Then the timer hit the floor one time too many and was no more.

Time passed.

Late last year when I was doing my dee-clutter thing I stumbled accross Fly Lady and signed upto receive her messages each day.  I have been reading them ever since and taking tips etc where they worked for us.  One tip was about using timers to get tasks done.

Each day there are her tips and testimonials as well as the sales pitch for the products.  No probs with that, just know that you have been warned.  The products are actually very good and  I have since bought a few of them, but I do find the constant onslaught of them a bit tiresome, but hey, her site is free so she has to pay for it all some way. 

Anyway, back to my story...  People write their stories and send them to flylady who publishes some of them.  After reading how using the timers had helped heaps of folks and remembering how they had helped our daughter, I figured that I had nothing to lose.  I bought each of us a cheap digital timer with a magnet and a clip on the back.

we have been finding all sorts of ways to use them to help us and have been experimenting with them.

Teen 2 paused long enough for me to snap a quick pic of her in action with her timer.

She has been sorting and tidying her room since she had neglected it a bit over the holidays and it is now a bigger task than she would like it to be.  She set the timer for 15 minutes and focused entirely on tidying in that time.  When it goes off she stops and walks out of her room to sit and do a puzzle for the next 15 minutes.  Then when it goes off again, back to her room she goes.  She has amazed me with her focus and has been at it now for about 2 hours!  I expected her to have stopped some tme ago.  After about four rounds of this she is still happy and focused and her room is looking much better.  Those who know and love my precious teen 2 would know that what I am saying is nothing short of amazing!

She has read this draft and given me permission to say why it is nothing short of incredible.  Teen 2 has Aspergers Syndrome and ADD so believe me, focus is a challenge for her!  She is scary intelligent and we often think of her as a muddle-headed professor. 

Happy self-managing teen and happy mum.  :)

We have been using the timers to do household tasks, especially tasks that we don't usually enjoy and by interspersing them with more pleasant activities, we are kind to ourselves AND get the job done.

I have been experimenting with using the timer in a different way.  I tend to hyper-focus and not allow myself to stop or take a rest until a job is finished - old baggage that I have never been able to quite overcome.  That is pretty tough on me and on those I love since I have tended to drive all of us way past our best.  It has lead to conflict and trouble getting the kids to even start in the first place.  That pattern definately neeeded to be changed.

With the help of the timer I have been able to focus on a task  for long enough so that I feel like I have accomplished enough without exhausting myself or anyone else.  It varies on the task and on how I am feeling, but around 30-40 minutes of continuous focus and then a break or a different FUN task before returning to the original task.  This way I am learning new, more healthy patterns, not wearing myself out in the process,  my teens are learning healthier patterns too and it reduces ressistance and conflict about getting something done. 

Hmmm who would have thought that a simple little timer could help so much????

Happy Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day!

Let's celebrate... No hot, crowded parks or swimming pools for this family.

pancakes and ice cream for break fast.

Everyone sit around and play a board game "Passport to Australia"

 

 

then...
Teen 1 and "the Man" left for another social commitment.
Hubby and Dee watched a movie - "The family Stone" - very funny.
Teen 3 finished packing for her new life boarding to go to school.
Teen 2 read a book.

Now we are leaving to deliver teen 3 to her host family on the other side of the city so she can unpack and settle in before starting school tomorrow.

How did you celebrate Australia Day?

Ahhhhhh, that's better....

Yesterday I  showed you the before pics of our family room which is our office space and my craft space.  Today I am showing you the after pics.  I must say I am VERY PLEASED with the results. 

 

soz, this pic is a bit blurry, but it is the only one that I took from this angle.  At least it gives the view.

Everything is neatly on the shelf and I still have room to spare!

The credenza even fits easily nder my desk and I can sit at it with room to spare... and it is mostly empty!  oh heavenly a space to use to store something else.

Teens 1 and 2 gave me a hand and we used the trusty timer again to work in short bursts.  We set the timer  for 45 minutes then took a break before heading back for another 45minutes.  We were nearly finished when the timer went off again and we all raced just a bit more to get the last bit finished in less than ten minutes. It was very hot and by this time we were all exhausted and happy to call it a day.

I had wanted to take a break and then finish up with the clearing up, but we got a phone call inviting us to air conditioned fun so that was the end of any thing else for the day.  oh well it will wait until tomorrow.  Not a problem. but...

Where are we going to eat dinner?

hmmm...

there is this nice big clear desk....

while you are giggling here is another chuckle for you.

yep.  as soon as a cupboard is opened and one item removed, a cat MUST get in there. it's cat law. teen two pulled the blue plastic box out to put something in it and then had a little trouble getting the box back in.

Now take another look at this room.  I have taken this pic from the far wall which goes into two bedrooms. It is looking back across the family room, dining room and kitchen.  Through the arch is the lounge room. 

It is a compact  house and we love it!  we just have to make some adjustments.

BIG Job...

This is supposed to be my craft space.

You just about need a crash helmet to walk past.

I used to have a whole room - 6m x 3m. sigh.

At the moment I have a desk piled high and boxes all around it.  I am seriously lacking suitable storage space and it all needs a good dee-clutter.

As you could imagine I haven't been able to do any craft since we moved.

anything that has no home seems to gravitate to this space...

anything that no one knows what to do with ends up on the heap...

anything that some one didn't get around to putting away seems to be here too!

I have been wanting to change it about to make it actually work.  It has been a fair way down the priority list with gettig the rest of the house unpacked and working, then Christmas, summer holiday camp, holidays and travel, then back to school...

This is the other side of the room.  It is trying to be the office and not working as you can see.

the desk is piled high with papers and you can't access the pigoen holes at the back of the desk.  

Two spaces neither of which are working.  It is physically and visually cluttered... time to re-work it.

I was drifting off to sleep the other night and had a brain wave.  I 'saw' how I could arrange it and had to wake myself up so that I could make sure I would remember it in the morning.  yep nutso.

I could hardly wait to get into it.

We spent a chunk of yesterday afternoon packing up hubby's teaching resources to take to his new classroom.  yippee, less stuff here.

Today we spent a total of about 5 hours at it.

Stay tuned for the 'after' pics.

wore out teen 2. (and she got chocolate)

note her pretty blue nails.

each time we were taking a break, teen 2 and I took turns painting each others nails. 

Got the blahs

We have just been for a drive to thte other side of town to collect my baby's uniforms for her new school and to meet with the Home Stay Co-ordinator.  It all went very well.  We got a tour of the facility as hubby hadn't been able to attend the open day and since it is a long way away we won't be around there very often. 

Teen 3 is excited and a bit nervous.  New school, new uniforms, new home stay family....
Her mummy is blah. 
Happy - it's a fantastic opportunity for her and very few kids get the chance to go to such an elite school with the latest in everything.
Sad to have her baby so far away - she is only 14.  I will miss her sooooooo much.
worried for her
excited for her
no idea how we are going to pay for it all???
it's all too much for this mummy right now.

 

Scary

2009 was a tough year.

.  Amoungst other things I got drowned in a mountain of unfiled paperwork.

wooooow what a scary pile!

the longer it has sat, the scarier it got.  

Is this where I say that the 'former' Dee liked to keep on top of paper work and not let this happen. 

2009 was a tough year.

time to conquer the mountain of paper sort...  gather the supplies

massive stack of paper to file

large flat surface - not the floor (it's too far down)

timer - to do it in several shorter bursts

helpful teen who will work for peanuts chocolate

music on LOUD  - teen 2's choice

Ahhhhh - all sorted

done in 27 minutes x two people at it =  54 minutes. Not bad.  CD didn't even finish.

take a break - teen walks to corner shop with dog for chocolate caramel tart fortification.

 

file paper-work , add new files, label, cull old stuff

45 minutes x 2 people = 90 minutes

shred culled papers - 15 minutes 

all done! 

celebrate with a cool drink and a movie teen 2 chose

Cool Pixar film!

like I said 2009 was a bad year and we missed it at the movies.  fixed that now.

Holiday Moment

I love my camera with its excellent zoom.  It means I can do this...

and catch these precious moments...

 

... until this happens... 

yep. Sprung.

...and so ended the moment 'casue all I got from here onward were stares and goofy faces.

curtain caper

Yesterday I mentioned hubby's sun glare dilemma in his new classroom.  Today I can tell you the happy story of how we solved it.

Hubby's new classroom is on the second story and all the rooms along the side have a glare problem from the roof of the adjacent single story building. 

Before...

... and just so we have the evidence... hubby is cleaning the windows!

There is a curtain rod left by the previous teacher, so curtains are the obvious answer. 

Hubby wants the light to come through those windows but wants to reduce the glare. 

What to do?

Not blockout curtains.

Not expensive blinds.

I no longer have any of my old curtains since I dee-cluttered them.  But I do have the end of a roll of green homespun.  Bright green.  Hmm, I think it will be enough.  A quick measure and I needed four drops to cover the window.  I got it out with about 30cm to spare - whew! 

I like a creative solution to a problem.  In this case it solves several dilemmas in one convenient go: curtains, one less thing in my house, not having to spend money on curtain fabric.

The resullt...

I call it a success.  Light comes through and glare doesn't.

We also solved another issue in the classroom.... see the red homespun Hubby is measuring and the red boards in the background?

Most of the pinboards in the room were old, ugly and covered in marks and paint.

Solution: cover them in nice, new, red homespun.

 Double success!

Is there anything that I wish I didn't get rid of?

Since our big clear out is there anything that I wish I didn't get rid of?

I have been asked that question several times by people who say they need to declutter but can't bear the thought of needing the item about a month or so after it has gone.

That is a funny thing. There have been several things I wanted to use since I no longer had them... I felt a moment of regret and then worked out another way around my dilema.

I used a different dish for Christmas.
I rearranged some furniture so I no longer needed that shelf.
I used some fabric instead of a certain hardly ever used table cloth.

I felt SO good about all of that! It was like I had just gained yet another gift... I knew the world wouldn't end by decluttering, by not having an item, BUT I didn't know how good I would feel about finding a different solution.


I REALLY don't need as much as I think I do.

That is the tricky bit.
Most of us know we have too much.
Most of us will say we need to get rid of more of it.
AND we have plenty of excuses and reasons why we must hold onto those things.  


Hubby asked me today if I still had any curtains left. I got rid of ALL of the curtains. Because we rent, I used to carry several sets of curtains from house to house, but they hadn't suited here and some hadn't suited our previous house or the one before that either, they endesd up occupying precious storage space. I found it hard to get rid of them as they were still in excellent condition and I had cleverly bought simple, classic stuff that would suit most settings.


Hubby's new class room gets the glare off the roof of building beside it for part of the day, so the teachers on that side put up their own curtaining solutions. Drat. NOW I may finally have a use for the curtains that I gave away in November!

On further investigation, the curtains really wouldn't have done the job properly; some were not wide enough; others were too long or the wrong headings or would block light as well as glare.

The bottom line is that I would still have to do something different anyway.

I still dont need the curtains.  I only thought I did (for a few moments) and that is the most powerful thing - I ONLY THOUGHT I NEEDED THEM!


It is hard to learn that the big issue is to deal with how we think about the stuff we have.

I have a long way to go and so do my loved ones, but we are on our way. The old HEAD CLUTTER is the biggest battle in decluttering.

here are a few pics that I took of hubby's office before we moved.  It was sooooo messy and cluttered that one day I got out the camera.  Now I am glad I did. It is some of the only evidence that I have of the clutter reformation.   

 

He swears he liked it like this!
And that he knew where most things were!
And "don't you dare touch MY STUFF!"

what are you holding on to, or what is holding onto you?