Getting Organized -- One tabletop at a time.

Hey, everyone.  I accepted the 21 Day Organization Challenge from A Bowl Full of Lemons but I'm a bit late to the party on Challenge 2 so I did Challenge 2 & 3 today.  Yea for me!  I'm doing 2 separate posts so as not to cause any problems.  This post is Challenge 2 which was to clean off your desk.  For me that would be my very small computer desk.

Wow, what I see through the camera always looks a whole lot worse than when I'm just walking past this mess a hundred times a day.  Well, I do have one of those lame excuses, but I won't even go there.  Here is the messy view.

All cleaned off!  Now if there was just something to do with all those wires!

Now this looks better.

Got my morning (and afternoon) brew, so I'm ready to go.

Woohoo, Challenge 2 down.  Now run on over to my next post for Challenge 3.  Come back again soon.
CAS

Fresh Starts -- New Goals and Plans

I am both excited and apprehensive about the next few months.  As I've mentioned previously, we will be selling our house (hopefully) or leasing it (not the preferred option) and making a new home in the Phoenix area to be closer to our children and grands.  The Man had "use or lose" vacation time and has been off work since just before Thanksgiving keeping busy doing a myriad of things around here.  Besides all the bathroom fix-ups you can see HERE, he has done some serious cleaning in HIS garage.  He actually proudly announced to me the other day, that he was getting as organized as me.  Well, that's not likely, but I am glad he aspires to be more organized.  HIS garage was a MESS!

After being sick for several days, the challenge of getting all the Christmas things packed away has been just that, a challenge.  I felt better yesterday and managed to get everything out to the sunroom.  That's the staging area to get it packed into the crates and hauled out to the garden shed.  Once that's all done, all the tabletops (well, pretty much all flat surfaces) will get a good cleaning or polishing.  Then the fun can begin.    Okay, first I will have to reorganize my decor closet in the sunroom.  Yes, I just did that before the holidays, but it got seriously messy during the Christmas chaos.  I love looking at my supplies and collected items and planning out new tablescapes.  My plan for decor is to keep it simple and, hopefully, appealing to anyone who might be a potential buyer.  I have already gotten some great suggestions from some Blog Sisters and I truly appreciate any and all.

One of my ongoing projects in 2010 just got wrapped up yesterday.  I have been working on an album called Project Life which you can check out HERE.  This has been such a fun and memorable project that has made me look closely at each day and record a "happening" with a picture and a bit of journaling.  These pictures have been of some very mundane things like the dishwasher (aren't we all glad we have this workhorse?) & an organized laundry closet (go figure) to snaps of our children and grandchildren when we've been together.  This album is like a picture diary of this past year, and I get misty when I look at some of the photos.  This experience has also increased my confidence in taking pictures, but I still have a ways to go in that arena.  Becky Higgins  hasn't asked me to do this, but I find her to be a really sweet, generous and inspirational young woman.  These Project Life kits that she has created are just wonderful.   I purchased one for both my daughter and DIL for Christmas, and they are excited to get started recording everyday life.  I thought I'd share just a few pictures of my album.

The album is very sturdy and a fun color.

This is my dedication page which is to my family.

Everything you need except the photos & the journaling are included in these kits.  I thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful colors & the cute journaling cards.

This was my closing page.  Can't believe it's been a year.

I'm truly looking forward to this blogging adventure as we move into 2011.  I'm hoping it will help keep me grounded so as not to get too freakily weird over the house sale and all that.  I have lots of projects going on in my Play Room which you can see HERE.  Every day life must go on, right?

Are any of you into the "One Word" idea for the year?  I learned about this last year from Ali Edwards ,    but her first post about the idea can be found HERE.  I took the concept to heart & chose my one word carefully.  It was "passion" and I've tried to make it a part of my every day life this past year.  My word for 2011 is "patience" because I'm going to need a lot of that this year.

After a day-long break from writing this post, I can now say that all the Christmas decor is safely packed away.  Whew, so glad that's finished.  Will I be reminded of all the work of putting it away when decorating for the holidays of 2011 roll around?  Probably not.  Well, I might get reminded by The Man, but will I pay attention?  Doubtful, truly doubtful.  I did some polishing and cleaning of flat surfaces yesterday and will do more on Monday, but haven't started the process of bringing the normal decor pieces out.  My mind is abuzz with ideas and I keep jotting down notes.  I'm really looking forward to the fresh start.

Hope all of you are enjoying some fresh starts.  Thanks for stopping by and please come again soon.
CAS

I just knew you would want to see this!  She's actually just holding the spot on the shelf for the above mentioned album.  She is so helpful.

Renew! Renew! Renew!

I am happy to be linking to the following:
A Bowl Full of Lemons Organizing Challenge
Inspiration Friday

Happy New Year everyone!  I just love New Year's Day and not because of football.  I just love the fact that I have a whole new year to do things.  It's truly a renewal time for me.  I start my new calendar(s), new "To Do" lists, & clear away all the remnants of Christmas.  That's taken a bit longer this time due to being sick, but even that's almost finished.  For those who have followed me for a couple of months, you know I'm kind of freakily organized, but organization is one of my passions.  I love the act of organizing things and then enjoying the outcome.  When I discovered A Bowl Full of Lemons, I was thrilled.  As organized as I am, I always strive to be better and Toni is ready to kick some serious "clutter butt" with this challenge.  Day 1 (this is a 21 day challenge) is all about tackling the junk drawer.  Usually this is in the kitchen, but it can be wherever clutter seems to overwhelm drawer space.

My first pic is my kitchen junk drawer.  This is how it has looked for several months.  I'm not joshin' ya, I didn't touch a thing except open the drawer to snap this shot.  I could probably do a bit of tweaking, get rid of a few pencils, pens, etc;  but The Man reaches into this drawer at least once every single day & has been returning items to their designated places.  Let's just be clear here, I'm not messing with this little bit of perfection, okay?

Okay, now we get down to one of the nasty little secrets of my otherwise "fairly" organized home.  This is the drawer in the end table on my side of our recliner sofa.  I do have a rather lame excuse and I'll run it by you.  I'm kind of a shorty and this end table is as deep as the sofa;  so when I'm all reclined and comfy and need something from this drawer, I just stretch my arm around the corner & grab.  I've learned to keep all my essentials like chapstick, nail file, clippers, eye glass cleaner, tums, pens & pencils in this left-hand corner in a container.  I can just feel what I need, grab it, use it and toss it back into the container.  That being said, I truly don't know why the rest of the drawer gets so messy.  Today when I cleaned it out, it contained numerous pkgs. of Xmas light replacements.  Truly, how many do you need? Is 2 enough and 5, too many?  I don't know!  Help me!  Okay, other items found were several tea lites because I'm a candle-person, especially during the holidays and they need to be handy.  I know, lame.  Oh, and that tube of hand cream had died many moons ago.  There were some odds and ends that I'm sure The Man tossed in there.  Probably because he didn't want to mess up the kitchen junk drawer!

Seriously, this took me about 3 minutes to clear away the clutter, put things where they actually belonged and tidied up what needed to stay.  Don't judge me on that little container on the left-hand side.  I haven't gotten any taller, so I still need to be able to reach in and grab, okay?

Just for grins I thought I'd show you my bathroom cosmetic drawer.  You see I really am pretty organized.  It's been like this for about 2 years now.  Makes my morning routine much easier.

 
Alright, I'm feeling very motivated, so bring on Day 2 challenge.  I'm ready.
CAS