Hide And Seek

I started to knit something earlier but I got about a third of the way into it and was distracted by something shiny...or cashmere. Now, I'm almost done with a different project and thought that rather than weave in ends and finish edges, I'd let it gather some dust and pick up the aforementioned project.

Actually, if you were to warp that above paragraph (more) and add iterations which resulted in about 25 unfinished projects, you would have a fairly accurate description of my life.

Anyway, I needed to find the pattern. Close your eyes, count to 20, and then we'll seek.

This is the shelf where my magazines should live:



Filed loosely by year.

This shelf is an acceptable alternative for those times when I don't have time to file:



These obviously fell during a recent earthquake:



Didn't you hear about that? I'm pretty sure my house is directly on a fault line.

It would explain this:



Oh, those shelves used to be neat and tidy.

Well, the pattern doesn't seem to be living in My Sewing Room. Maybe it's in this bookshelf:



That crocheted monstrocity is a scrap blanket I'm making for whichever kid I like better on the day I finish it. For now, the cat sleeps on it.

Still no pattern. Maybe the shelves behind the couch:



Nope. Maybe in my makeshift end table, on the couch, or under my pretty chair:



Still don't see it. Where could it be?

In my knitting bag?



That's not it. How 'bout my other knitting bag?



No, not there.

Wait a minute...



What's that?



Ah ha! I found you!

Now...

...What did I do with the yarn?

A Look Into My Pantry

I'm subscribed to 61 blogs, so forgive me for forgetting which one of you cleaned your pantry, and thus inspired me to do the same. I usually clean it out twice a year, but I think I skipped my fall cleaning so I was overdue.

Secretly, I love looking in people's pantries. It tells me so much more than the medicine cabinet. I'm hoping you're the same.

Before/After



The pictures don't look that much different, but there are some key features I want to point out:

• The kids can now reach their cereal
• I now know I have 14 different flours, 8 different seaweeds, 15 pounds of pasta (not nearly enough), 5 different salts, 6 different nut butters (of which the Businessman only eats Jif) and 6 different kinds of vanilla. Too many beans and grains to count.
• TBM and I are tall, so we can easily access the top shelves of all our closets and cabinets. This is one area where I'm glad genetics didn't fail me. All my weird flours, liquor, and rarely used appliances live there now.
• The black things that looked like mouse poop on the third shelf turned out to be black rice--phew. The black things on the floor that looked like black rice--not so much. There is now nothing edible or mouse chewable on the floor or bottom shelf (there never was anything edible on the floor, but now I can sweep it easily).

That was What I Made today. Sorry the post is a little blah, but I feel a little blah today.

What does my pantry say about me? Besides the fact I could feed a small country (or two teenagers) for a day.

F-Bomb

I say F-Bomb. Not the crasser word that F-bomb represents, I literally say F-Bomb.

For instance, when the businessman woke up last Saturday, itching to do a small project like try to seal of a couple mouse holes. After an hour of loud thumping I made my way down to the basement, turned the corner and hysterically shrieked:

"What the F-bomb are you doing to My Sewing Room?"

And he mumbled something about camping gear and dead mice.

Then I saw he tossed some of his possibly mouse carcass infected gear on my sewing table that has a huge pile of silk lying on it.

"Are you F-Bomb kidding me?"

See how well it works as a swear word?

What I Made:

I made him go to the hardware store and get shelves and evicted his nasty campgear from My Sewing Room. Now that closet is reserved for seasonal decorations. He's pretty sure there were no mice in the sleeping bags. Because, as a mouse, a nice soft fluffy sleeping bag is the last place I would make a nest.

Someday I'll tell you about Airquote Favors.

10 Ways To Find Time Throughout The Day

Do you really want to learn how to create? Well, I am willing to try and teach you.

Random knitting pics inserted for your enjoyment.

The most frequent comment I receive regarding my creations (besides "You could sell that!" and "Is this why your family looks feral?") is "I'd love to do that, but I don't have the time."

Well, in fact, you do have the time. You just haven't prioritized. Here are some ideas to carve out some time for yourself. Not all of them will work for you, but we're just trying to find extra minutes here and there for now.

1. How much recreational screen time--TV, computer, digital coffeemaker)--do you use? Can you multitask? Would you rather use that time more productively?
2. How much time do you spend in line? Can you multitask here? Could you do something here (ie write out your weekly menu or grocery list) to save time elsewhere?
3. How about waiting to pick someone up, or hanging around at kid's sports practice?
4. Do your kids know how to play together? How about alone? I have it on good authority (a certified OT) that teaching your children to play alone and learn to find their own fun is invaluable for many aspects of their future. Just don't go overboard--they do need you to teach them other skills.
5. Are there any chores you can delegate to your kids? My 3yo can make his own bed, pick up books and toys, clear the table and he loves to mop! My 5yo does the above (not quite as enchanted with the mop) plus he puts away his laundry, sweeps, sets the table, empties some of the dishwasher, puts away groceries, and scrubs the toilet. Next year he's doing my taxes.
6. Do you have a pad of paper in the kitchen where you can write down the things you use up as you use them up? Going to the grocery store several times a week wastes time (and gas).
7. Are you willing to wake up earlier? Go to bed later? Ten minutes a day is over an hour a week.
8. Make a large amount of dinner and immediately stash some away for a future meal.
9. Do you need to do your chores as often as you do? What if you put off vacuuming just one day?
10. How much time do you spend making yourself look perfect for your children and the solicitors and the grocery store clerk?

Most of these take some work to implement-especially with the kids. And although I wish the house were self cleaning I still haven't figured out how to do it with mindpower. But I don't just sit down and knit a sweater (unless the Olympics are on). I knit a few rows here, a few stitches there. Maybe I'll crank out a big chunk during Thursday night TV (unless there's alcohol; then I knit a big chunk but have to rip it out the next morning. Not pretty.). Most of those socks are knit while I wait to pick Yummy up at school.

What I Made:

Pic 1: Socks made from scraps of sockyarn.

Pic 2: My winter coat.

Pic 3: A cute little lace number I made for a new baby (I gave it away a year ago, don't get any ideas).

Pic 4: A sock for me--never finished it.

Pic 5: One of my current projects. My camera finally behaved and acknowledged the beautiful cable.

My Spice Racks

When I first set up house with the Businessman, I realized quickly how expensive spices can be. I grew up with my mom's spice rack and wanted to start my own collection. We decided to purchase one jar per week. After a few months, my collection was seasoning our lives nicely.

I then spent a few years looking for the perfect way to store my spices. My mother's racks are perfect and the search began for racks similar to hers. It was an exercise in futility.

Real Simple Magazine came to my rescue. I adopted their method for the following reasons:

I have 70+ different spices in my kitchen.

This system keeps the spices out of the light.

It is uber-compact.

I can access whatever spice I need in less than ten seconds.

Basically, you decant your spices into watchmaker containers (Lee Valley corners the market) and then label them (labelling is so important in organization).



The only thing I would add to RS's system is to alphabetize. This is especially crucial with multiple cases. I labelled the cases 1-4 so I wouldn't be permanently stuck with A-E, F-I, etc. I've used these for years so I know 'cinnamon' is the first four containers of case 2 (yes I have four different kinds of cinnamon).

The whole shebang fits beautifully next to my stove.

I'm about to graduate into a fifth case. I'm worried that this is an obscene number of different spices.

What are your favorite spices? How do you organize them? Do you have a favorite spice blend you like to make?

What I Made:

The Businessman can't handle spices. He likes spice blends (calling them "Man Spice"). Thirteen years ago he got a container of Tony Cachere's Creole Seasoning. One day he panicked because he was in the middle of cooking eggs and realized the container was almost empty. I secretly looked at the ingredient list and whipped up about 1/2 cup of fresh seasoning blend for him and poured it into the container.He still has that same container.

I still fill it. I still don't know if he knows this. I made a fresh batch today.

My Closet

I have a thing about closets.

I think all standard closets are useless. What good is one pole for hanging and a small shelf that is usually to high to be servicable? I also feel that if the doors are always open, the walls should be painted (I get this from my mom who actually wallpapered my closet). My mission in every house I've moved into is to redo ALL the closets.

It's what I do.

This has been on hold, like so many other projects, because of funding. However, we paid the piper too much last year, and he sent us a nice little check to make up for it. So I splurged on the smallest room in the house that I spend less than 15 minutes a week in.

I went to Home Depot and checked out their laminate tiles and paint. When DH came home I showed him my swatches and told him my vision. He approved thinking this might be my five year plan. He came home the next day to the carpet ripped out to the subfloor and all the junk hardware removed. In for a penny in for a pound.

I trekked though the project. I painted and refloored and installed really pretty Closetmaid organizers. All that's left is the floor molding and a couple power saw strokes on some shelves. There were a couple snafus--HD no longer carried the closetry I have always used and one of my drawers doesn't quite slide in all the way--but it's done and it's gorgeous...

...and now the rest of the house looks a little ghetto. We must now fix up the rest of the house to match the beauty of my closet. At least I didn't redo the bathroom only to have the rest of the house aspire to be as nice as the toilet.

Oh and to give my DH his credit, he did help me. He cut the edge around the light fixture with paint so I wouldn't have to take it down. And he carried the boxes up the stairs.

The Spice Rack

I love my spice rack.

A few years ago, Real Simple magazine had an article about the best spice rack. Their solution involved purchasing watchmaker cases from Lee Valley Hardware and using them for spices. The medium aluminum cases hold fifteen watchmaker cases each. I have four of them, plus one case of twelve larger cases for larger whole spices (cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, star anise, etc.).

Of course they are in alphabetical order (I'm an organizer) and the whole stack of them can fit into a kitchen drawer. No pilfering in a dark cabinet, or wading through a million identical jars for me. I simply find the proper case, open the needed spice, and I am good to go. As for he frequent spices. I buy in bulk, keep them in a dark corner and refill as needed.

To my delight, a Penzey's Spice Store opened in the Denver area. It's not close, but I do end up in Denver on occasion and it's as convenient as anything else. I'm pleased to say my spice racks are full.

The System

I am an organizer. I am not necessarily a cleaner but I am an organizer. I'm also a very mathematical thinker. I come up with logical ways to accomplish things. It helps me preserve my sanity.

Several months ago I did a yarn inventory in Excel. I was curious about what I had and how much and I thought it would be useful to have a list of some sort.

I had over two hundred balls of yarn. YIKES!

I have groups of 10-20 that are dedicated to projects, groups of 5-10 that are dedicated to projects in the making. Piles of yarn that have no project but I got enough so I could do a project should one come to mind.

Then there are the randoms. This was what genuinely shocked me. There were the odd balls that were left over from completed projects. Balls from projects that I scraped. Balls that I loved or wanted to try that never made it past the speculation stage. Random balls from when my mom cleaned out her stash. The list went on and on.

But I love yarn and my hobbies are the one frivolous expense I give myself.

So I came up with a solution to help me deplete my stash but still buy yarn:

For every two balls I consume/sell/give I can buy one ball.

That's it. That's the system. It's simple. It's motivating. It's easy to moniter in Excel. And best of all, I now only have 127 skeins/balls/cones of yarn in my inventory. I have made progress!