Everyday Home – A Paws In Thyme

Christmas Planning

2 Nov

Do you cringe when you hear the C word even when its whispered or talked about quietly among friends. Me to, especially at this time of the year. I am talking about Christmas…what C word did you think I was talking about??

When do you start planning for the Holiday Season? I try to start about now but since I am a single mom, I have to start saving sometime about mid-year to be able to afford this time of the year. I start planning the gifts I will be buying (my family knows I will be nagging them for their list of what they would like) and the baking I will be doing so that I can keep an eye out for sales. This is also about the time of year that I plan what my wrapping theme will be for the presents. I try to pick a different theme every year. I love the brightly colored foil wrapping paper but unfortunately, it is not recyclable in our area so I always opt for paper that is recyclable as it seems wasteful to me to use so much paper for one day of the year for it to only be thrown in the garbage.

My family doesn’t expect anything fancy or expensive. In fact we prefer handmade gifts that are made from the heart with love. Eventhough my son is a teenager, I am proud to say that he doesn’t expect tons of gifts. A lot of people have the perception that the younger generation gets or expects too much. In some aspects that may be true but my son usually has a very short list and he is ok if he doesn’t get everything on his list. The older he gets the more expensive the items become it seems. I am usually nagging him for his list up until just before Christmas and even then I may get a text with a couple of ideas. It is amazing how hard it is to buy for a teenager – they are ultra picky. Clothes are completely out of the question. Heaven forbid I buy something with the wrong logo or the wrong brand. If that happened the clothes would sit in his closet like grandma’s relics in her china cabinet collecting dust.

I like to choose one or two homemade gifts. This year, I am thinking of making vanilla. It seems like a pretty simplistic recipe and it can be dressed up with pretty cool bottles and ribbons.

For baking, it has become tradition for me to make Big Batch Kris Kringle Cookies. These cookies taste awesome and the recipe makes a lot so there is plenty to share with everyone or for you to hide and eat later in peace when no one is around. For me, I tend to eat a lot of the cookie dough so my batch doesn’t bake nearly as many as it should. I know, I know you are thinking…she eats RAW cookie dough!! You bet I do, and I am more than ok with it, I am willing to take my chances. I actually eat so much of the dough that I can hardly even eat the cookies after they are baked. You know when you’ve eaten so much of one thing, you can’t bear to eat anymore of it.

Besides those cookies I always choose 2 to 3 other items to bake. This year I am going to make Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bars because they are pretty easy to make, Thick and Chewy M&M Cookie Bars and a simple Low Fat Pumpkin Bread. These recipes tend to take a lot of chocolate and candy and I can see you all judging my shopping cart when I have copious amounts of chocolate tucked away in the corner of my cart. Just because I am shopping in my workout clothes doesn’t mean that eat carrot and celery sticks everyday…a person’s gotta live a little. I know that the peanut butter marshmallow bars are a throw back to the 80’s but I bust out my Michael Jackson Thriller soundtrack and I am ok with my retro bars and I seem to still know all of the words to all of the songs like it was 1983. I pack away the baking carefully into containers and put them in the freezer. Last year I had tons of baking done and the time came to start putting it out for family to enjoy and the first couple of containers I chose from the freezer seemed pretty light. I put them on the counter and opened the lids and they were empty. No baking anywhere to be found, just some crumbs. Now I know it wasn’t me and it wasn’t the house hippo that supposedly lives somewhere in my house, not the cats or the dogs……that only leaves one culprit….the teenager!! He literally ate more than half of the baking at some point between me packing it away in the freezer and the three weeks leading up to Christmas. I go to his room and ask him about it and oddly enough it seems that it wasn’t him and it is a mystery as to where the bars may have disappeared to. Has your teenager ever done this??

I always have lists for everything. Maybe I am odd but even my lists have lists so Christmas planning is no different. I make a master list and then create smaller more manageable lists from there. This also makes it easier for shopping as well. I know exactly what I need to get at the various stores that I shop at.

I am the kind of person that tends to worry about the small details instead of the big picture, so I buy the stocking stuffers, the doo-dads, magazines and cards…you know the things that you are running around looking for last-minute when the stores are jam-packed, you are completely sick of shopping and you literally want to throat punch people and the weather sucks. I know it seems backwards but I can’t tell you how many times I have been so glad that I had all of those things ahead of time especially when I am completely done all of my wrapping.

For my wrapping theme, I like to choose something simple. My favorite is brown paper with natural bows and embellishments like a wooden Christmas decoration or a pinecone or something like that. A roll of brown paper is very inexpensive, can be recycled and looks really traditional against a beautifully decorated Christmas tree.

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is decorating the tree, well except for dragging up the decorations from the basement. That is a big ordeal. If you have read my previous post about my craft supplies in the basement, then you will understand what an issue this is.

I pick an evening that my son and I are both free and I make hot chocolate and we have some appetizers and I put out a plate of Christmas baking. We set-up the tree (yes I have a fake tree) and we start decorating. Since I have a son, his interest in decorating isn’t really all that apparent. It is met with a lot of eye rolling and sighs but I think deep down he somewhat enjoys it. He places decorations here there and everywhere. This makes my OCD twinge a bit….ok a LOT. I like my decorations placed a certain way and with certain ones grouped together. I fight against my OCD as I don’t want him to feel like I don’t want his help. I do want his help but, I want it done my way. I wonder to myself if I am a horrible mom because I think this way or if other moms have this same issue?

I have to put all of my fancy, breakable decorations at the top of the tree and all of my non-breakable ones at the bottom of the tree. I have cats…and all of you cat people out there understand my struggle. They are ok during the day when I am there sitting by the tree however, at night as soon as I get all snuggled into my cozy bed, the cat shenanigans start. I swear that it is a cat conspiracy. It is as if they all get together and plan it out. As I am about to nod off into sleep land, I hear it. The tree and the decorations shaking. I get out of bed and shoe them away from the tree eventhough, I know that this is really a futile attempt at getting them to stop….when have you ever known a cat to listen?? They run away and hide and honestly, I am sure they are secretly laughing to themselves. As I get back into bed again, get all warm and ready to nod off, they are at it again. I can hear the decorations jingling and the tree limbs are being batted around. WTF, I angrily get out of bed and chase them away again, threatening to pack them all up and take them to the shelter (not that I ever would but this somehow makes me feel like I have adequately threatened them enough to get them to stop). I only put my tree up for a couple of weeks because this is a nightly ritual when you have cats and Christmas trees. Then there is always the one cat that needs to be the martyr of the group and it must climb to the top of the tree. Sigh, we always lose a few decorations every year. The struggle is real, who can relate to pets and Christmas trees?

We have the tradition of opening 1 gift on Christmas Eve while we sit around visiting with family and snacking on various appetizers and goodies. My two favorite things on Christmas morning are watching my son’s eyes light up with anticipation of what he is about to unwrap and opening my stocking. Seeing what is inside my stocking has always been my most memorable moments. It’s not because there was ever anything expensive or fancy in it but for some reason it was what I have always looked forward to.

We open presents slowly and enjoy the morning sipping on coffee, indulging in the chocolates that were in our stockings (surely chocolate early in the morning is allowed on Christmas mornings…Right?)

I then make a big breakfast and afterwards, the all day eating commences with anticipation of the big family feast later in the day.

What is your favorite part about Christmas?

Craft Room On A Small Budget

30 Sep

As a continuation to my last post regarding craft supplies and needing a place to store supplies and a place to actually do my crafts, I start dreaming of a craft room. I get to work searching on the internet looking at pictures and websites. There are so many amazing craft rooms out there, so much so that I wonder if they are like me and if they actually do any crafts?

I searched for craft room organization, paper storage, pen storage, gift wrap storage, etc. I saved any pictures that I came across and every week or so, I would look over what I had saved and I made note of the pictures that I kept going back to. Finally, I came to a point where I had searched every possible thing that I could. That is sometimes the downside to the internet. We can search and see what everyone else has done instead of using our own imagination to come up with ideas. On the flip side, there are so many amazing ideas out there and it always amazes me how much creativity and imagination that people have.

Some of the craft rooms, I loved but I knew were just not possible for me as I had a small budget to work with. I knew that I needed a large craft table to use as a workspace. I thought about building one but my measuring and cutting skills are pretty bleak so I combed buy and sell sites for something used that I could refinish. I just couldn’t seem to find exactly what I wanted. One day when I was out in the shed looking for the elusive weed eater string, there it sat. It was rough, full of cobwebs and the only grey paint left was clinging on for dear life but would have fallen off with the slightest whisper of wind.. She is perfect (and yes the table is a she), I thought to myself.

I have to enact the muscles of my son to help me carry her to the garage. She needs a lot of help but as I start to wipe the cobwebs off, to my delight the table is solid wood. No wonder it was so heavy. I spend the next couple of days sanding and prepping. I choose a simple antique white paint to make her pretty again.

I spend an evening sketching out the layout of my craft room. I want something simple and functional with plenty of storage. I wanted a lot of built in storage but knew that it was above my carpentry skills and budget. I searched for storage cabinet possibilities. I really had my heart set on a used shelving unit that I could re-purpose but it quickly became apparent that this was not an option. I have a small SUV, how would I get something like this home?

Online at Wal-Mart, I came across a seven drawer Halifax Cabinet that was perfect and reasonably priced. I ordered 2 of them as this should be enough space to organize my supplies. Waiting for my cabinets to be delivered was like a little kid waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve.

A few days later my cabinets finally arrive and I spend the afternoon putting them together. Obviously I made a few mistakes interpreting the instructions as I had several bits and pieces left over but who actually really reads all of the instructions anyways? They were perfect for the storage that I needed.

Halifax Cabinets and Wire Shelving for Paper Storage

Next up was a paper organization system for all of my scrapbooking paper. There are so many great organizers that you can buy but I found them to be quite expensive and not within my small budget. I literally checked local buy and sell sites hourly to see if anything new would show up that could help me cut down on the cost. Instead I opted for wire shelving with cable ties. I had these left over from a previous project and they were sitting in my closet taking up space so it was a great way to re-use them. I spent a couple of hours building this however, when I was done it was leaning a lot much like the Tower of Pisa. Oh well, I thought, once I get all of my paper on each of the shelves, it will straighten out.

The next day, I go into my craft room and leaning Tower of Pisa was now a heap of wire shelving, broken cable ties and crinkled paper. Determined to upright the tower, I bust out the cable ties and went to work. I doubled and triple reinforced all of the joints. I was now satisfied with my paper tower but not so much with the crinkled paper.

I was still trying to come up with a clever solution for that dresser full of gift wrap that I have. I knew that I wanted a piece of peg board so that I could hang rolls of gift wrap and I wanted storage for the ever elusive scissors and a place for ribbons and bows. One day my son and I were in Canadian Tire, I can’t even remember what we were looking for in there but there it was. I am sure that everyone in the store seen the lightbulb come on in my head…I mean it was that bright.

A Workbench with a large table surface for being able to wrap, a peg board backsplash to hang gift wrap from and a shelf to store rolls of ribbon plus drawers for storage and an open cabinet front to store gift boxes, it was everything that I could have hoped for in one cabinet.

This was the absolute perfect solution for me; it checked all of the boxes for my gift wrapping needs. The best part is that I could either stand or sit on a stool to wrap presents. I don’t know if you are like me but every Christmas I go on a wrapping bender. I spend hours sitting wrapping presents. I am no ordinary wrapper, the tape, ribbons and paper have to be just perfect so it takes me an unusually long time to wrap. My legs get cramped and sore and I am almost chiropractic worthy afterwards.

This workbench was pricey and not within my budget but my luck was about to change, this bench happened to be 50% off. I didn’t even hesitate, I searched for a store employee, he loaded it up for me after I paid for it and away I went.

My son helped me carry it up to my craft room; this sucker is solid steel and has a bamboo top so it’s heavy. I open up all of the packaging and start to flip through the instruction manual. I am reading and looking at the diagrams and thinking that this is probably the most complicated thing I have ever had to put together. Thankfully my daily job requires me to read blueprints all day long otherwise I am not so sure that I would have fared as well as I did. I am a girl after all and generally we are not as gifted in these sorts of things.

This was an all-day adventure putting this together. The instructions were great but it was just time consuming and my ratcheting skills are pretty much non-existent. After it was all put together, I was able to set up my wrapping station. I organized all of my wrapping paper, ribbons, gift bags and boxes. I was super proud of myself in coming up with using a workbench for this.

Next came time to put my craft table into the room. My son and I carry her up the stairs and down the hallway. As it turns out I measured to make sure the craft table would fit nicely in the craft room however, I seemed to have forgotten to measure the door width. No problem I thought to myself, we will just flip the table on edge and turn it diagonal and it should be no problem. What I failed to account for was that there is a very small wall in the way and that the legs of the table hit the wall so I am not able to turn it diagonal. Apparently the measure twice, cut once seemed to have slipped my mind. I like to pride myself on my common sense and usually thinking of these kinds of things but not this time.

There was absolutely no way this table was going to make it through the doorway, not even if I take the door off. At this point, I was sweating, my arms were tired and a lot of swearing was happening and I mean a LOT!! My son even had the audacity to say mom, “didn’t you measure first”. I am sure that I gave him the most disgusted look ever…you know the look … when your kid points out the obvious mistake that you’ve made. You know you’ve made the mistake and at that point you don’t really need it pointed out.

I stop and think for a moment. There are only 2 options. Find another craft table somewhere or cut 2 of the legs off so that I can fit it through the doorway. I had spent a lot of time refinishing this table and the size was perfect and it was free. I reluctantly come to the conclusion that I must cut 2 of the legs. I head to the garage and grab a saw. I cut two of the legs off and after some repair work afterwards of reattaching the legs, she was proudly sitting in her place looking beautiful as ever and waiting to be used.

I spent an entire afternoon setting up my room and I was able to organize my craft room in a way that I had always wanted. Sure my room wasn’t as elaborate as I had wanted but honestly, it turned out better than I had expected. This was a big task that I had accomplished and for the next several days everytime I would walk by the room, I would stop and admire it. I was able to complete my room on my budget and I was also able to re-purpose some items that would have just sat unused.

Some finished pictures from my craft room

Now to actually use the room, that remains to be seen…..

Do you have a craft room? Where did you search to look for ideas on designing your room?

Note: I do mention products that I used and where I purchased them from however, I do not receive any compensation for this, I simply wanted to share what I personally used.

Craft Supply Addiction

8 Sep

Can you spend hours in craft and art supply stores too? Combing the aisles evokes some sort of excitement like an addict getting their fix. I think it is because I am an addict….I admit it, I am addicted to everything crafty. I see a pack of fineliners that I must have, after all I may need those colors for that project I may undertake someday. I know, I need to get out more if that is what is exciting in my life. It seems like every couple of weeks, I come across a craft that I absolutely have to try.

Are you like me?

You see a zentangle or a mandala or maybe some calligraphy and you think to yourself, I have to try it so you spend hours, even days researching the best supplies, searching on pinterest, watching every youtube video that you can find until you have researched it to death. I know your type…if you had never heard of zentangle or a mandala until this moment, your googling it right now aren’t you!! I buy all of the best supplies and my new supplies sit in their packaging staring back at me with great anticipation on when they may get used. My excitement to use them is high and I have my project all planned out but then I snap back to reality. I can’t draw or paint and I haven’t used cursive since school (which is forever ago) and even an art project that is abstract doesn’t work for me because I need everything to be exact. Exact and abstract don’t exactly get along very well. If a project requires any sort of measuring, forget it, I have no idea how to read a measuring tape and if it requires a straight line drawn with a ruler well….somehow my lines still turn out crooked. So the time comes to actually do the craft and I tear open the packaging and hmmmm….my excitement fades pretty quickly and I don’t actually even really want to do it. I think I am just addicted to the supplies, the planning and the thought of having a hobby that I am really great at but, I never really get to the actual doing part of the hobby. Deep down inside, I know that if I actually chose a hobby and dedicated some serious time to it, I would probably be pretty good at it but I seem to keep on with my never ending search for a new hobby.

Perhaps it is because I don’t have a dedicated space when I get in the crafty mood. I have my supplies here, there and everywhere. They are in my office, some are packed away in Rubbermaid containers in my basement and I am even using an old dresser to store my gift wrapping supplies. If I am really lucky and I need a gluestick or some pencil crayons, I may find a dried out gluestick under my son’s bed and a couple of pencil crayons that have had the life sharpened out of them.

Anytime I want to work on a project, I have to drag everything out, carry Rubbermaid containers upstairs, then search my office for the tape and then it was at least another hour to find a pair of scissors – seriously where do scissors disappear too? I manage to find a pair of scissors in my son’s room (big surprise) and the blades seem to be stuck together. I ask him about it and apparently, he thought that cutting up pieces of bubblegum would be a good idea. I manage to find another pair…you know the ones. The plastic ones that are duller than a dinner at Aunt Martha’s on a Friday night, the ones that they give you in grade school so that the teacher can be sure that you won’t injure yourself. Those will do I tell myself. By this point, I am not really feeling crafty but I persevere, determined to create a masterpiece. Scrapbooking is one of those hobbies that I have managed to stick with. I sit at the table and I unpack all of my scrapbooking paper…admiring how many beautiful sheets of paper I have (I have a LOT of paper). I continue on the page where I left off several months ago, trying to remember what sort of layout I was working on. I try several new layouts using different papers and pictures. I settle on a layout and I try to cut out a design but the f$#%^g scissors are so dull that they just crease the paper. Meanwhile, my cat has seemed to plunk himself across my papers gingerly batting around the ribbon and papers; his masterful paper hunting skills have managed to fling my papers all over the table…and where did the buttons go that I had chosen? My other cat is playing hockey with them on the floor and now I can only find 2 of the 5 that I need. By this time, I am very annoyed, I pack up all of my stuff, carry it back downstairs and literally, I have created nothing. Maybe that is why I am just addicted to the supplies because, I can never relax and get to the doing part of the craft without it causing great anxiety. I start dreaming of a craft room….after all, I do have an extra bedroom that is doing nothing. A blank canvas to create the craft room I had always wanted. Doubt creeps in…would I actually do any crafts once I had a dedicated space? A space where everything was organized and I could actually have sharp scissors. Of course I will be crafting all of the time, I tell myself.

Stay tuned to see if my craft room comes to life and if I actually do any crafting. Do you have a craft supply addiction? What is your favorite hobby and if you have a craft room, I would love to see pictures of it 🙂

How to Organize Home Manuals

20 Aug

You buy something new, get it home and frantically unpackage it like a child at Christmas. There are pieces of cardboard and plastic wrapping strewn about with the remaining bits and bolts. Maybe there are only a few or maybe there are alot left depending how well you read the instructions. Then there is the dreaded manual. What the heck do you do with that thing? You may or may not read it…or you casually flip through it and decide to push all of the buttons because you are pretty sure that you can figure it out without the manual (or is that just me)?

You toss the manual in a drawer or in the bottom of the filing cabinet and it is never ever to be found again…especially when you need it so that you can figure out how to set the clock to the proper time, unless of course you’re ok with 12:00 flashing for all of eternity.

I have a pretty good solution for this and it really is just a quick project that you can complete within a couple of hours. You could even spread the task out over a couple of days if you wanted.

The supplies you will need are simple and you may even have them in your house somewhere already. The supplies are probably with your manuals stuffed in the dreaded junk drawer or cupboard.

Supplies I used:
• Large binder(s) – I used a 3” binder that I happened to have left over from some school supplies (2 or 3 binders if you want to split your manuals into 3 categories, more on that later)

• Dividers – these don’t have to be fancy and I just used some that I had on hand
• Clear heavy duty sheet protectors – the heavy duty ones may cost more but I find that they do not tear easily so they can be reused over and over

• Labels – 1-3/4” x ½” mailing labels

STEP 1:
Scour the house for manuals. Check the garage, shed, drawers, bedrooms, dresser drawers, filing cabinets, etc etc. Pile them on your kitchen table or large comfortable workspace. I like the kitchen table because, I can alternate between standing and sitting. This step is just about gathering up all of the manuals; don’t worry about sorting them at this point.

STEP 2:
Now it is time to sort the manuals. This is where you need to decide if you want 2 or 3 separate binders. I have chosen 3 because I have a lot of manuals.

1. Major household appliances
2. Everyday household items
3. Power tools

The reason why I split them into 3 binders is because if I ever move, I can leave the major household appliances binder behind for the new homeowners and the other ones I can take with me.

Make a few different sorting piles (I am going to go on the basis that you are choosing to do 3 binders) I know I am being presumptuous but I am ok with it.

The four piles I made are:
1. Major household
2. Everyday household
3. Power tools
4. Recycle / No longer need

Go through each manual and make sure that you still need it. If you no longer have the appliance or item, get rid of the manual (recycle if you can).

When you have gone through all of your manuals, now it is time to organize them. This is where the fun part starts.

STEP 3:
I put each manual in a page protector and if I have the receipt, I staple it to the inside of the first page of the manual. This way I always know the date it was purchased, where it was purchased, price, and the model number (if it is printed on the receipt). I also put any warranty information in the page protector for that particular appliance.

I take a label or labels and write the make/model number and the serial number on the label(s) and attach the label(s) to the top right of the outside of the page protector. If there is a filter size, I write that one there as well. Hint: I also put that filter size in the notes on my phone so that when I am out shopping, I don’t have to remember the size of filter that I need, I can just look it up on my phone.

STEP 4:
When you have gone through all of your manuals and put them into the page protectors, I then group them into the binder with dividers. I currently have mine divided into:
1. Kitchen – stove, fridge, dishwasher, microwave, etc.
2. Utility – hot water tank, air conditioner, etc.
3. Heating – furnace, gas fireplace, thermostat, etc.
4. Millwork – The layout of the kitchen that the cabinet installers left behind, type of wood, countertop sample, etc.
5. House plans and roof truss drawings
6. I recently had the exterior of my house repainted so I have the contract as well as the paint colors
7. I also redid my landscaping and I kept one of each of the plant stakes so that future homeowners would know what was planted or if I need to replace any plants that don’t survive
8. Other – garage door opener, etc.

STEP 5:
When the binder is complete, you can do the same steps with your everyday household binder and power tool binder. If you have a small amount of manuals you can simply combine everything into one manual. You can also type out the labels and print them out if you want, if that is easier for you. I keep the major and everyday household binders in my office and the power tool binder in the garage so it is available for quick reference.

I came up with the idea of a house manual because, when I purchased my home, there was really nothing left by the builder. For example, I had no idea what colors were used for the paint so it became a nightmare when I needed to match up the paint colors. I thought that it would have been so much handier if they would have left all of this information behind. How nice would it be as a homeowner to walk into the home that you just purchased and boom, sitting on the counter is a book with all the pertinent information about your house all in one organized binder.

The trick is to keep this up to date. I find that when you have a dedicated place for something, it is more likely to stay organized. The next time you purchase something new or replace an existing appliance, you can simply add it into a new page protector, or you can recycle the old manual and replace it with the new one. Update the serial and model numbers on the label and it becomes a very quick process. You will always know where the manuals are and you don’t have to look at 12:00 flashing for all of eternity.

What are some of your ideas for organizing your household manuals?