Category Archives: Home stuff

Motivation vs procrastination

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Are you a “self-starter”?  Or do you need outside motivation to get things started?  Do you procrastinate until  the very last-minute to begin a project?

Did you read my New Year’s post that “2017 will be the year to finally get my house organized and updated”?

I am in need of some major motivation and less procrastination.  Most of the time I have great ideas then fall short of achieving them.

Part of my problem stems from:

  • the financial situation – Can I afford to do this?
  • my ability – Am I biting off more than I can do without professional help?
  • the best time to begin – Will I be able to complete it within a reasonable amount of time?
  • my idea – What will Mr Aitch think of this idea?

If I promise something to someone else, I can get started right away and finish i.e. the Cheers to you Mitts.

I don’t seem to be able to begin without some type of deadline.  Self-imposed deadlines don’t get me motivated.  I need guests, or the promise of new carpeting, or remodeling the basement with paint and built-in shelving/cabinets/work bench, or help.  Mostly help.  It’s so much easier to clean out someone else’s stuff.  No sentiment associated with other peoples’ stuff.

Now as for the organizing part of my 2017 plan – our walk-in closet is in dire need of a major clean out.  That will take several days and our bedroom will be a total disaster during the entire time.  So I think I will tackle the smaller coat closet on the first floor as I know I can finish that in a day.

Today will be the first day!  I Can Do This!!!

I’ll let you know my progress on Wednesday.

Welcome 2017

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Everyone else is jumping on the New Year’s bandwagon, so why not join them?

2016 included more travel than I’ve done in any other year, home improvements, lots of sewing and knitting and many, many other things not blogged about.

2017 will be the year to finally get my house organized and updated with new carpeting (hopefully), paint rooms that have not seen a paintbrush since we first painted twenty-plus years ago, travel, revamp the staircase, and knit and sew more for others.

Also on the list is to reupholster six, count ’em six, chairs…four of which will go to Colorado.

I want to pick up my calligraphy pen again and make cards and envelopes exciting again.

And travel.

On a personal note I will work toward becoming more positive and less negative, clean up my vocabulary/mouth, give more of myself to others, exercise more, eat less and get rid of 40 pounds of fat.

What are your hopes and dreams for the 365 days?

Changing things up

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For several years these cards from IKEA were displayed in a long vertical frame on a narrow wall.

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But I wanted to change out the pictures for some note cards by Woody Jackson.

reframe004I didn’t want to damage the cards by taping them directly to the underside of the mat so I made picture/photo corners from some old envelopes.

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I just cut off the corners at an angle and slipped them over the corners of the note cards. Then I taped those corners to the back of the mat.

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Voila!  No damage to the cards if I ever decide to use them.

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Now the frame fits nicely above the doorway going from the kitchen into the hall/dining room/foyer area.

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Saved a bundle

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We noticed some frozen veggies in the crisper drawer in our freezer-on-the-bottom refrigerator.  They are not suppose to freeze.  Frozen romaine lettuce is pretty disgusting.

After several Internet searches, I found a fix to problem.  A frozen defrost line in the back of the refrigerator.  So you ask: If the freezer is on the bottom, how come the defrost is up there?  The ice maker and water dispenser are in the upper part so we can get water and ice through the door.  The water from the defrost cycle from the ice maker couldn’t get down to the evaporator pan as it was clogged with ice so it ran into the bottom of the refrigerator, pooled under the crisper drawers and froze.  The veggies in the crisper were sitting right on top of ice and froze, too.

I watched a couple of YouTube videos on how to repair the frozen line and keep it from happening again.  Only time will tell if the fix worked.

Figured I saved a hundred dollars.  Or two.  That’s a bundle to me.