and it was awesome!  A few days ago I started a post about how I think I'm a bone deep Thanksgiving traditionalist while the other half of my brain is busy coming up with "improvements" on the day/feast.  It was boring.  I will tell you that I stuck to my vow and delegated cooking chores to my interested guests and we had a blast in the kitchen.

Next on the list - Christmas.  Are you already freaked out?  Stressed?  Frazzled?

Not me man.  Here's a tip for slimming down your holiday horror:

Gifts In Bulk

• Sit yourself down with a pen, paper and hot beverage.
• Create a list of all the folks you buy gifts for.
• Group them in similar categories, ie, siblings, nieces & nephews, service providers, etc.
• (Of course some are a category in their own right, like spouses, kids and parents.  That's cool.)
• Determine a gift for each category, ie, a batch of caramel corn for service providers. 
• Purchase/make, wrap, give.

Much easier, no?  Buying gifts in bulk like this leaves you more time to focus on the most important people.

Now I have to go because I'm motivated to hang up the garland.  Just the garland, I don't want to get out of hand over here.

Here's a shot of our Thanksgiving desserts, the mini pies in the ramekins are new this year, and a keeper.  Portion control people, portion control.

That's right good people, I finished my back entry way and it is FRESH! 

If you're living in an old house this small, and you've got a bunch of people storing year round outdoor gear in a little space like this, well, that's hard.  My good fortune involves only me using this space, so I've spread out some. 



The mirror is for my current jackets and purse.  Very nice.



On the steps is my outbasket, it's where I throw my keys, and other things that are going outside with me.  What you see sticking out of the outbasket is a reusable grocery bag.  My husband disagrees with my use of the steps for storage, he's wrong.  I win.  Because I can find my keys.



My husband made this little coat rack and I use it for my work totes and a hanging basket for gloves, hats, etc.  The basket used to have a wicker handle but it broke.  It's not an easy size to find so I used a wire coat hanger and made a new handle.  Hey, I'm a farmer's granddaughter.  I can fix stuff.

Do you see the collage of photos above this rack?  I love collages.  In the past I cut the photos from Christmas cards and hung them on our fridge.  My husband didn't enjoy this effort so I picked up a couple pieces of sheet metal and hung them in this awkward little spot with removable adhesive.  The pictures are hung with magnets, and it's been fun to fool around with photos of friends, family, the garden and other little bits of ephemera.  When painting I realized I haven't done anything with it for a while so will spend a happy hour or so updating the photos. 

Now let's go back to you.  If your back entry is also small, but you're sharing with others, here's a suggestion to keep the chaos to a minimum: 

Keep only what's been worn that day in the space.  Designate room somewhere else for all the rest of it.  One pair of footwear, one jacket, one bag per person.  Then police the space ruthlessly.  Part of your nighttime routine will involve everyone putting their  extra stuff away.  It actually only takes everyone a few minutes and the calm created for the next morning will be well worth the effort.

With just me using this little space it can very quickly get overwhelmed with shoes and boots, especially once the weather is wet or snowy, so I can totally empathize with your pain.  We remodeled the space at the bottom of the basement stairs to serve as a mudroom, it's been a great solution for overflow.

Number of days it took me to get over the floor being blotchy.  About seven.  Don't look.  Really. 

Oh.  Yeah.  Doing stuff and not blogging about it.  Sorry about that.

So anyway, I've got the holidays on my mind.  This morning I was chatting with some friends and threw out what I thought were pretty good holiday tips.

Number One Thanksgiving Tip:  Make your mashed potatoes a couple of hours ahead and hold them in a crockpot on low.  Awesome. 

Number Two Thanksgiving Tip:  DELEGATE!!  I know, for some of us it's hard to give up being the culinary star of this magnificent feast.  I'm with you.  But here's my story.  A few years ago I hosted my family, a relatively small group, I suppose 10 people.  Offers to bring something were accepted, but I insisted on making the bird, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, green beans and pies myself.  Because I'm so good at it.  And I LOVE to cook this meal!  But as I stood in my kitchen in a stupor and my sister-in-law asked me if I was all right, in that "are you going to pass out right now?" tone, I realized I was doing this Thanksgiving thing all wrong.  Sure I'm good, but I need to get a grip, this is not healthy behavior.  This year my guests will be participating in the kitchen.  It will take some organizing on my part, my kitchen is beautifully set up for one cook, 2 or 3 is going to take some thought.  But I'm up for it.  Because it will be totally fun and still taste fabulous. I will, after all, still be in charge.

Smart Phone Update.  I still haven't found a calendar app, but I'm getting email on my phone!  Now I realize how much junk email I'm getting, time to declators that list.

On another note I've nearly got my back entry done, the only thing left is painting the trim.  Which will commence shortly.  I have been sidetracked multiple times during this little project by other little projects.  Such is the way of adult ADHD.  Oh well, I'm focusing now...

Here is one of my projects I sidetracked to:



I heart windowboxes.

Worth it!

So.  The Smart Phone, I'm seriously afraid it's smarter than I am.  Over the last few days I've spoken to a number of people who are curious as to how I like the phone.  My response, "I've only had it for a few days and there's quite a learning curve."  Anyone who has an android phone totally gets that.  Learning curve indeed.  So far I've learned how to answer it (I made a special trip to the store for that lesson), text and Facebook.  I'm committed to using it as a calendar but have abandoned the idea of using it for email.  My back up plan is to give up and pass the phone to my husband.  He's looking forward to it.  We'll see.  When I find the perfect calendar app and learn how to use it, I will share.  Could be a while....

With quite a lot of smugness I can tell you we have settled on a furniture arrangement for our dining room.  Here you go, two views:



Yes, it still looks like a bunch of furniture lined up against the wall.  Because that's what it is.  It's what it's like to live with a furniture collector.  And yes again, I like it. 



See how I cleverly mirrored these two pieces?  We can enjoy this view if we contort ourselves into the opposite corner of the dining room.  This is what I go through.

The organizing challenge this week has been meal planning.  In my haste to switch to the electronic calendar I gave short shrift to planning our meals and now am paying the price.  What price?  The "it's 4:00 what's for dinner" angst.  To avoid further drama, I reverted back to my Daytimer for meal planning and the world smoothed right out.

Awesome.

There was also a little backsliding on the "No More Pumpkins" edict.



Whoops.  Well, they're little and cheap, easy to store.  That's justification enough, isn't it?

Number of things left on my Fall To Do List:  One.  And it isn't check out Carol Widman's Candy for caramel apples, because I did, and it was awesome!

 

You will recall, on the infamous Fall To Do List, a seemingly minor task, "refinish the landing at the back door".  Easy peasy.  Yeah.  No.

Look at this!  How hard could it be?



Turns out an average size woman with an electric sander and 60 grit sandpaper isn't enough to get what's left of this finish off.  Oh no.  It takes an average size man with a belt sander.  Crap.  I hate that.

Bottom line it's taken longer than expected.  This is my landing space and coat closet.  I'm starting to miss it quite a bit, because instead of my organized, contained space I have this:



You're darn right that's my kitchen table, not looking very good, is it? 

One organizing rule is "Contain everything".  My little back landing is my container for the stuff that goes out the door with me.  I miss it.  I'll be working pretty hard to get it back, because I really, really need my container.

In other organizing news I'm getting a smart phone.  I think I'm going to make the ginormous transition from a paper organizer to electronic.  I use Outlook in the office but have been reluctant to give up the paper calendar I lug around.  You see, it's more than a calendar.  It's the home for my lists, like Christmas lists, menus, favorite dishes, websites to look at, books to read, etc.  With all the apps available on smart phones it's starting to feel like I can capture my lists in an easy to use format.  We'll see.  It's just an experiment at this point, no promises yet.

Number of years it's taken me to try to go from a paper organizer to electronic:  Five.

What I didn't tell you is what we bought at the antique show.  Because that's what it's really all about, buying.  Here it is:



I refer to the log holder, I thought it would make a great cat bed if I put a pillow in it.

Otis disdains this idea, he prefers to spend his office time here:



And really, who wouldn't?

Here's a bad picture of where the bed used to be in our office.  I like this much, much better. 



I'm calling it done.

Number of recipes that are soon to be blog posts:  Four.

We're home from the antiques show and every single thing we took out of our house didn't sell.  Darn.  However, now that they're out of the house they're not coming back in.  Furniture arranging and fluffing has commenced and I will share when the dust settles.  It will be soon...

The garden project I blogged about a few weeks ago?  Done!  FYI, Roundup doesn't seem to hurt well established ditch daylilies.  Just in case  you might need to know that.  We're having a fabulous run of Indian Summer days here in Fargo, the light is so amazing this time of year.  To celebrate all the loveliness I've spent the last two afternoons in the backyard making a horrific mess.  No pictures, it won't be pretty until next year.  I will tell you I planted:

• Dark purple bee balm
• Ornamental thistles
• Five different hostas (two more to go)
• Iris
• Three different heuchera
• Ladies mantle

It's going to be amazing!  In spite of the daylilies that I'll be pulling and spraying for the rest of my life.

The Fall To Do List is getting knocked out pretty well!  Next project?  Refinishing that darn landing.  With a sander, an electric sander.  Girls and power tools, it's a magical combination.

Number of pounds I want to lose in the next week - three.  I won't be doing this anytime soon.  Boo.

Today I'm practicing restraint. 

I.  Will.  Not.  Shop.

The object of my desire is a plastic tray, oval shaped.  That's right, oval.  Which is frankly sort of worthless.  The reason I want it?  It's a Fiesta tray.  There is something seriously awry here.  Oh, you didn't know I collect Fiesta?  Hmm.  Maybe another day.

On the other hand, trays are fabulous organizing tools, they can corral just a ton of stuff, as in:

By the stove;



In the bathroom;



On the pantry shelves;



They also work great for serving food and drinks, who would have thought it?

Here's a question dear readers, what could you, or do you,  use a tray for? 

As for me?  No, I'm not buying another tray.  Even if it is Fiesta and cuter than heck.

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. Rain outside my window.
2. A sleepy cat.
3. My cheerful husband.

 

 

Sooo, did y'all know my husband is an antiques dealer?  Yup.  He's the kind of antique dealer that collects for years then goes into business.  His initial, and ongoing, passion is Arts & Crafts furniture.  In order to avoid the "living in a warehouse" look  we instituted the rule "one in, one out".  It works pretty good, especially when you're talking big and very heavy pieces of furniture. 

Which brings me to my current state of disarray.  We're getting ready for the one antique show we sell at (antique shows are limited in our life because I hate packing, hauling, re-packing, hauling back and putting away.  Yuck.  We have a store for crying out loud.)  We are selling three pieces out of our house, which could be good.  Three out, three in.  Maybe.

This bed is going:



It's a twin bed we've had for, oh, maybe 18 years?  It's been slept in once.  Really.  It sits in our office.  There's a great story about how my husband acquired the bed, but honestly?  We could use this space better. 

Also going is this wicker chair and ottomon in the corner, it's my porch reading chair:



There is at least a plan for the porch

And then there's this teacart:



This is the one giving me fits, I cannot figure out what to do next here.  Everything I try looks like a bunch of furniture lined up against the wall.  In fact, it's looked like that ever since we juggled things around on Memorial Day. 

So where was I going with all this?  The house is kind of turned upside down and I'm not sure when it's going to be right again.  It's an unsettling feeling, I don't like it.  Frankly, it's why I organize to the point that I do, when things are settled I'm comfortable.  It's why anyone should organize, to simply feel good.  I'll be plugging away for the next couple of weeks, or more, trying to get things back to comfortable again.  There's my motivation for organization in a nutshell, comfort.  For me.  It's all about me.
 
PS, remember how I said I got rid of my marbleized wallpaper because Jenny at MFAMB  doesn't like marbleized?  She doesn't like Arts and Crafts either.  We won't be following her down that merry trail.

Number of things I've knocked off my Fall To Do List:  Errm, well, ok.  One, two if you consider I haven't purchased one single fall decor item.

Today I'm checking off one thing on my Fall To Do LIst, we're having pot roast for dinner tonight, yahoo!  Pot roast is one of those things that can be made big for a crowd, or little for one. Tonight there's just the two of us, we'll have the roast with gravy and smashed potatoes. ... << MORE >>