Category Archives: Uncategorized
Owen Sound Home and Cottage Show 2012
This weekend we are having a blast at the Owen Sound Home and Cottage Expo. It’s great meeting the new people and seeing friends and acquaintances that show up yearly to check out our display.
We have a great view of the sound as a backdrop for beautifully sculptured gardens of the Bayshore Community Centre.
People loved the all white look. We were even dressed in white.
I need an outlet to display my talents in puttering and tweaking.
Anyone wanna open a store with me?
Hot Tub Dilemma-A ‘first world problem’.
Good Grief!
I got out of the car at home to my spouse at the open back door, phone receiver in hand, yelling out to me: The hot tub is going to cost $700 plus GST to fix this time! What do you want me to say? Decision time!
To recap: I bought this old hot tub from a friend who bought it from a local hottub dealer when they used to rent them out. It has history. A life. Secrets. Lots of bromine to wash them away. I’ve enjoyed it during it’s working periods almost every day from October to May, even twice a day on my days off. I love nothing better to do after a 12 hour shift than to bask in it’s steam and heat. It’s my mini stay-cation. I have coloured caribbean Christmas lights slung around the clothesline beside it. We have outdoor speakers. We have a chiminea that I light with dollarama fire-starter logs. We have outdoor speakers! Need I say more? A little piece of heaven, and I, the floating angel in the hot flowing water.
He ended up telling the electrician that I’d get back to him.
After an hour or so of tossing the tub dans ma tate, here’s what I’ve come up with:
- Another $700 is just a drop in the bucket for what this thing has cost us over the years. Don’t get me wrong. It doesn’t owe us anything financially. We got it for a bargain and have ended up paying over the years the same amount as we would have if we bought a new one. By now, 5 years later, it would be old also.
- Let the tub go, let the tub go! Other people survive and even thrive without one, why can’t I?
- What if I take that money I could have spent and run? That chunk could pay my way ‘almost’ to an all inclusive vacation in the caribbean with my girlfriends. (I’m going to California in April with my man Jim, so the gf trip would be a bonus)
- I just started Weight Watchers on Wednesday. One of the huge bonuses of this program is that after I’ve spent the bucks, there’s no going back. Too bad I value money more than anything to give me the incentive to lose weight seriously. Anyway, I plan on exercising more, therefore I want a nice hot tub.
- Our bathroom has an older lower tub. I don’t have a soaker tub. That goes with the bathroom makeover. (Which should be done sooner than later in case I see a house perfect for us and our retirement and want to scoop it up). I am always seeing houses for sale in my business, so the temptation is always there! I don’t know how realtors stay put in their homes if they aren’t perfect for their needs.
If I really enjoy the tub when it’s working, Then why don’t I just get a guarantee that I have a working hottub? A new hottub! I saw one that is the exact same size. If installation is free, then it’s worth it. Isn’t it?
Just a little more research. I’m posting this so that I can get some feedback. If you have a hottub, what do you like about it? Why is it worth it to you? When do you enjoy it? Is it worth giving up other joys in life, like a winter vacation, if financially that doesn’t sit right with your goals? Ahhh! First world problems!!!!
Like this:
Here’s the Talk, Ladies. Organizing for Health, Habits, De-Cluttering a Room and The Closet Party!
Organizing for Health.
January: the Bedroom month
You’ve heard them. Other peoples resolutions.
Some of us want to lose weight. Some vow to save money. Some want to be more organized or make their business grow in 2012, some just need to live healthier.
Some want all of the above!
Maybe secretly, you do too.
If this is in fact so, pick one goal or resolution, and focus on it for 30 days. Just one, please!
It takes about 30 days to create a new a habit.
Set your intention to take your new action each day for the next 30 days. Put up reminders around your home.
Choose just one new habit to install at a time.
It’s a challenge to focus on more than one. In fact trying to make a whole lot of changes at once is a great way to sabotage yourself. One a month means a whole lot of change by the end of the year.
When you are creating a new habit, you will feel discomfort. This is because you are going through the process of change.
Stephen Covey’s book, ‘The 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE’, teaches habits of personal change.
Habit 1 Be Proactive see problems as a challenge for growth and change.
Habit 2 Begin with the end in mind
Habit 3 Put first things first
Habit 4 Think Win/Win
Habit 5 Seek first to Understand, then to be Understood
Habit 6 Synergize
Habit 7 Sharpen the Saw
Let’s say we start with organizing for several reasons:
Organizing can improve so many aspects of your life, including helping you to live a healthy lifestyle.
Two, two, goals in one!
Being organized reduces stress
The biggest cause of stress, when it gets right down to it, is RESISTING CHANGE. Change is inevitable, as we know, and require us to make decisions in our lives. My definition of hell on earth is having a big decision to make and not having made it yet.
Clutter represents postponed decisions!
BP’s taken before and after a person bets on a horse race at the track, showed significant increase before, then normalizing after the bet was placed. And the race hasn’t started yet! Think about it. Decision’s postponed.
One of the reasons I respect my shopping time, is that, not only are you walking on, perhaps, not the best shoes for a work-out, but everything you pick up has decisions attached to it. Do I like it? Would it make my life better? Can I justify the CPU? (cost per use). Is it worth trying on? Does it come in my size? (Now you’re looking for something again).
Being organized gives you time to eat right.
You will have the time you need (and you don’t need hours) to eat well-balanced, home-cooked, homemade, healthy meals. You’ll shop with healthy foods in mind. You’ll make the time to pack them up in snack sized quantities for on the go eating. You will grocery shop with a weekly menu in mind.
Being organized gives you time to exercise
The first three things to go when a person is too busy, or just managing their time poorly are friends, exercise and paperwork.
You can easily build exercise into your daily routine–no matter how busy you are. You’re going to make an appointment with yourself for that.
Being organized reduces accidents
Trippage, falls, fires from paper files, candles, computer, etc. Spillage, and also clobberage from above. I’m an ER nurse. I know how accidents happen.
Being organized allows you to breathe better
It’s very difficult to clean when there’s clutter strewn about. When you’re organized, you can quickly and easily dust and vacuum, without obstacles. Otherwise those dust mites are there, causing allergy symptoms to you and those you live with. Some of you have maybe seen the show called ‘Hoarders’. Mould, mice and worse hide underneath the clutter.
Being organized can make you and others happier
Perhaps you are late for things, your family has to look for things, you cause your daughter to always be late for practice, dance, hockey etc. Your boss might be angry that you can’t find something or get things done on deadline. Being organized will create less stress and less conflict with family members.
Let’s look at your business. What if you had only 2 hours a day to be productive? What would you choose to do? When you book the appointment…2 hours a day, you will use it productively.
What do you want?
How bad do you want it?
What would you do to get it?
What are you doing instead? Look long and hard at how you spend your time. Log it if you have to. Find the gaps. Read between the lines of your daytimer. What are you doing during the commercials when you’re watching TV?
Tell others about the actions you intend to take - the more people you tell, the more committed you’ll be and the more you’ll be accountable.
Okay, now, let’s get right down to it!
De-Cluttering a Room:
Remember,
De-cluttering and organizing your home is not about getting rid of everything. It’s about surrounding yourself with the things that speak to you, make you feel happy, and reflect the person that you are.
There’s a difference between an organized person and a clutterbug.
Someone can be both. If I asked you to find something, anything, and you can find it within a minute, I would call you organized, even if your space was full of clutter.
The average adult can easily spend up to an hour a day, looking for things. Don’t believe it? Add the computer, your purse, and the fridge. Ahh, the 1st world problems of today!
The first step to de-cluttering any space is the most important.
Make the appointment and keep it!
Respect yourself enough to show up. Respect yourself enough to keep the appt like you would respect your friend, co-worker, business associate, or your Dr, Hair dresser, child’s teacher, etc. Why not? You are just as important as they are to your life.
Gather equipment. A donate box, and/or clear plastic bag, a dump bag and/or box, and a delegate bin. This is for those things that are going to another room or place like a garage or storage space.
Turn on some music.
Set the timer for 20 minutes.
Listen to the ticking to focus on the task.
Zone in on one area at a time. You’re keeping only the items that have a home and deserve that prime real estate. If it doesn’t have a home, it can’t live there! Honour the item if it does.
Use it or lose it. Use your good things now. It’s not the end of the world if you have to replace a piece or two.
Donate, Delegate, Dump Remove to containers. Don’t think long about each item.
Designate a permanent donate container. This is especially useful in the closet.
Sort like with like. You will eventually designate zones for items that are alike. This makes things easier to find. I know if something is a paper, it’s in my office zone.
Acknowledge your progress - even if you don’t do it perfectly. Focus on what you ARE doing.
Reward yourself: You choose! When the timer goes off, decide if you’re on a roll, and keep up the momentum, or reward yourself with a break, even if it’s just a stop for a cup of tea with your feet up. But time the break also, if you plan on doing more. When I’m involved with a task, it seems that I work beyond the 20 minutes because the momentum is there.
Book another appointment.
How do you keep up the maintenance?
Fake it til you make it.
Live with it as if.
As if you were that minimalist, organized person.
(Organized people don’t see dusty boxes as treasures, they see junk shackling them to the past, blocking them from new experiences and generally overtaking their lives)
As if you were house sitting.
As if you were selling.
As if you were temporarily there. This helps you learn what’s really important in your life. Try not to purge to the point of guilt, because that would be more detrimental than productive, no? There’s a show on TV called Consumed, in which the participants get most of their stuff removed and have to go through a month without it, then decide what to do with the heaps of it in a huge storage unit. But for you? Try a few boxes. Label them and store them.
This could be worth renting a storage space. It could save you in the long run, because consider that this is the price to pay now for saving later in shopping binges, collecting that you’re accustomed to. Oh the 1st world problems we have!
Make a date to go back to the ‘stuff’ in 30 days.
January is the bedroom month. We are indoors more than any other time of the year. We are nesting after the chaos of the holidays. We are preparing for the renewal that the spring equinox has to offer.
So let’s focus on the closet first. I like to look at closet organizing as if I were having a party in a small space.
The Closet: Have a Party!
Who are you going to invite to the small space?
Ask yourself if each item is a:
Friend, Acquaintance, or a Stranger
Create an invite list.
Be vigilant on what things you allow to enter your life. This includes your friends doesn’t it?
The invitation list has to come within certain parameters when you have a small space:
1. Size Matters. Too big or too small a size, or waiting until you are that size again? Dress for now, if it doesn’t fit, it needs to disappear. If you lose weight and a few sizes, you DESERVE new clothes
2. They have to fit in. Only invite clothes. The most common things found on closet floors are free weights and fans. Certain items of clothing you would wear if they didn’t pucker, or make your tummy or behind look ‘this-way’ ‘or that-way’. These need to go. You only want clothes that make you feel and look good.
3. They can’t be outdated. Haven’t worn them in a year? How do you know for sure? Peter Walsh’s tip is my favourite because it’s easy. Turn all your hangers backward. After you wear something, replace it on the rack forward. Now look at your hangers in 6 months when you’re changing over seasons. Purge them. If and when those styles come into fashion again, be assured that new colours and textures will be used by current designers.
4. They have to be a good influence. Remember your mother telling you that ‘you are who your friends are’. Every time you put it on you get asked if you feel tired. Truth is, you are tired of the item. Then it just sits in your closet
5. They should be seasoned. Decide, depending upon space, if you need a place to keep out of season clothes. A plastic container, or an unused suitcase can work well for these. Winter clothes get of the way as soon as it’s May! I keep a bulky sweater in white or cream handy for those cool summer nights.
6. They are allowed their cliques: Sort like colours together: This will help you see what colors you have in your closet. Is it all black? Black, being a minimizing color, is what every woman needs, but you might consider looking into other colors to accessorize your wardrobe that work for YOU.
7. Treat your guest list well. No wire hangers for your clothes that have earned their place on your list! Give them the honour they deserve. They made the list after all!
8. Get a co-host: Choose a buddy. Pick someone that you respect and trust. Someone, perhaps that has the same problem as you and you can swap parties. Pssst! Drop off the clothes at the thrift store on the way!
9. Reward yourself! This is especially easy if you have a buddy and can go out for a coffee and dessert afterward or between parties.
Keep a permanent donate bin or bag in your closet so you can toss immediately when you have the whim to do so.
Your closet will love you and you will save time, energy, and yes, money!
The principle, or master bedroom should be your sanctuary. The décor is best minimalist yet cozy. You can do this easily with a monochromatic colour scheme. The important thing with using one colour though is to vary your textures to add warmth. You should feel an internal “Aaaahh!” factor when you walk into the room. This is where you start your day with clarity and calm, naturally and balanced, and end your day with peace and gratitude. Enjoy!
See online resources
Helen Buttigeig
Peter Walsh
Clutter Diet-lots of great videos
Get Organized Now
Sign up for Google Alert ‘Organizing’
Houzz.com
Apartment Therapy
Pinterest.com
.
Your Closet: Have a Party!
You’re looking at your closet and wondering how you can sever the ties that bind, purge the plethora of the unknown, make room for the look you want for the person you are NOW. You have a small space, likely, and need to use that space as efficiently as possible to save time in the morning and in the evening.
What if you were having a party and you only have a small room to entertain in? That’s how I like to look at my closet. Your clothes are the invited guests.
Ask yourself if each item is a:
Friend, Acquaintance, or a Stranger
Who are you going to invite to the small space?
Create an invite list.
Be vigilant on what things you allow to enter your life. This includes your friends doesn’t it?
The invitation list has to come within certain parameters when you have a small space:
1. Size Matters. Too big or too small a size, or waiting until you are that size again? They are there to mock you! Dress for now, if it doesn’t fit, it needs to disappear. If you lose weight and a few sizes, you DESERVE new clothes.
2. They have to fit in. Certain items of clothing you would wear if they didn’t pucker, or make your tummy or behind look ‘this-way’ ‘or that-way’. These need to go. You only want clothes that make you feel and look good.
3. They can’t be outdated. Haven’t worn them in a year? How do you know for sure? Peter Walsh’s tip is my favourite because it’s easy. Turn all your hangers backward. After you wear something, replace it on the rack forward. Now look at your hangers in 6 months when you’re changing over seasons. Purge them. If and when those styles come into fashion again, be assured that new colours and textures will be used by current designers.
4. They have to be a good influence. Remember your mother telling you that ‘you are who your friends are’. Every time you put it on you get asked if you feel tired. Truth is, you are tired of the item. Then it just sits in your closet
5. They should be in season Decide, depending upon space, if you need a place to keep out of season clothes. A plastic container, or an unused suitcase can work well for these. Winter clothes get of the way as soon as it’s May! I keep a bulky sweater in white or cream handy for those cool summer nights.
6. Cliques Sort like colours together: This will help you see what colors you have in your closet. Is it all black? Black, being a minimizing color, is what every woman needs, but you might consider looking into other colors to accessorize your wardrobe that work for YOU.
7. Treat your guest list well. No wire hangers for your clothes that have earned their place on your list! Give them the honour they deserve. They made the list after all!
Every party is over at some point, but your closet will keep on dancing with you if you maintain it well. Have a permanent donate bin or bag in your closet so you can toss items into it immediately when you have the whim to do so.
Your closet will love you and you will save time, energy, and yes, money!
How To De-Clutter a Room
Remember,
De-cluttering and organizing your home is not about getting rid of everything. It’s about surrounding yourself with the things that speak to you, make you feel happy, and reflect the person that you are.
Make the appointment and keep it!
Respect yourself enough to show up. Respect yourself enough to keep the appt like you would respect your friend, co-worker, business associate, or your Dr, Hair dresser, child’s teacher, etc. Why not? You are just as important as they are to your life.
Gather equipment. A donate box, and/or clear plastic bag, a dump bag and/or box, and a delegate bin. This is for those things that are going to another room or place like a garage or storage space.
Turn on some music.
Set the timer for 20 minutes.
Listen to the ticking to focus on the task.
Zone in on one area at a time. You’re keeping only the items that have a home and deserve that prime real estate.
Honour the item if it does.
Use it or lose it.
Use your good things now.
It’s not the end of the world if you have to replace a piece or two.
Donate, Delegate, Dump Remove to containers. Don’t think long about each item.
Designate a permanent donate container. This is especially useful in the closet.
Sort like with like. You will eventually designate zones for items that are alike. This makes things easier to find. I know if something is a paper, it’s in my office zone.
Acknowledge your progress - even if you don’t do it perfectly. Focus on what you ARE doing.
Reward yourself: You choose! When the timer goes off, decide if you’re on a roll, and keep up the momentum, or reward yourself with a break, even if it’s just a stop for a cup of tea with your feet up. But time the break also, if you plan on doing more. When I’m involved with a task, it seems that I work beyond the 20 minutes, and
The Organizing Habit
You’ve seen the photos in magazines and online. Oh, you think, how would you love to have that space, that closet, that kitchen, that master bedroom. You can’t have it all, but you can have something like it, I always say. If you dream of that spacious, clean, fresh environment, then there is no reason why you can’t get some part of that action.
Just ask the right questions.
What do you want?
How bad do you want it?
What would you do to get it?
Fake it til you make it. Live in your space as if.
As if you were house sitting.
As if you were selling.
As if you were temporarily there.
This helps you learn what’s really important in your life. Try not to purge to the point of guilt, because that would be more detrimental than productive, no?
There’s a show on TV called Consumed, in which the participants get most of their stuff removed and have to go through a month without it, then decide what to do with the heaps of it in a huge storage unit. But for you? Try a few boxes. Label them, and then-
This could be worth renting a storage space. It could save you in the long run, because consider that this is the price to pay now for saving later in shopping binges and the collecting of items like you’re accustomed to.
Oh the 1st world problems we have!
Fake it til you make it for 30 days.
After 30 days revisit your ‘stuff’ that you’ve stashed. You may be interested to see how you can continue to live without it. You’ve created a habit.
It takes about 30 days to make something a habit.
Set your intention to take your new action each day for the next 30 days. Put up reminders around your home.
Stephen Covey’s book, ‘The 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE’, teaches habits of personal change.
Habit 1 Be Proactive
Habit 2 Begin with the end in mind
Habit 3 Put first things first
Habit 4 Think Win/Win
Habit 5 Seek first to Understand, then to be Understood
Habit 6 Synergize
Habit 7 Sharpen the Saw
Choose just one new habit to install at a time.
It’s a challenge to focus on more than one. In fact trying to make a whole lot of changes at once is a great way to sabotage yourself. One a month means a whole lot of change by the end of the year.
What if you had only 2 hours a day to be productive? What would you choose to do? When you book the appointment…2 hours a day, you will use it productively.
Tell others about the actions you intend to take - the more people you tell, the more committed you’ll be and the more you’ll be accountable.
How to Get Great Guests!
I’m making my list and checking it twice.
This next week I’m hosting 4 different social get-togethers at our home. I know, I know. Can’t I say no? Truthfully, I didn’t want to and am looking forward to it all. Life is about balance, and I have a dear friend in palliative care at home for her last few weeks, whom I’m hoping to help out. The celebrations of the season is a nice balance to all that. In actuality, it’s more of a coinciding partnership. It’s all about the love and light of the season, whether I’m with my friend, who’s the light of so many people’s lives, or whether I’m with my family and friends and the light shining from everyone here.
How am I going to make this as stress free, as flowing, as easy as possible? We certainly can try. Today, we’re vegging here at home, and like I started out, making my list. It’s a little downtime before for the up time during the downtime.
The only way to make it flow is to make sure your guests are great! How can you control that? Some of it comes from pre-paration. Delegating jobs and encouraging contribution.
Never say no to guests asking what they can bring. I always ask them what their specialty is. This is usually something they like making and is easy for them because they’ve done it many times before. Effortless as possible. They are already happy guests and the party hasn’t begun.
Always make the party BYOB and have some extra on hand, like a non-alcoholic punch, some homemade irish cream, and some rum and eggnog.
Provide Ambience: Lights of the season. Candle lights, soft lamps, strings of lights, lit up cabinetry, all of it! I have coloured lights hanging from my clothesline. We have a hot tub, and I play Caribbean Christmas songs on the outside speakers at this time of year. Add a fire-starter to the chimnea and voila! Pure delight.
Make the menu malleable. We are fortunate enough to have a freezer full of food that we bought when it was on sale. I see the bag of shrimp. I’m going to fry them up and serve them with a jar of thai dipping sauce I bought from the local farmers market for our Christmas eve party. Guests are bringing snack foods. I created an event on facebook and specified that snack foods would be welcome.
Do you like my little ‘Santa Hats’?
Leftover turkey will be used to make casserole for the gluten free types on the guest list on boxing day. With some brown and wild rice, a nice salad, and a dessert contribution from a happy guest. Of course another guest or two has brought some hors deuvres types, and I’ve laid out some cheeses, grapes etc. I can get a guest to make up that tray while they’re here.Perhaps a spicy soup, like pepper squash, or toasted red pepper and tomato? Yes, red is needed.
Provide provisions: Meaning bedding, an air mattress, when needed, or even a nap spot for that hung over Gen Xer, or the senior citizen to revive. Fresh water in a glass pitcher only $2 from the local thrift store will be waiting in the room. 
Sometimes your guests overlap to two or more events, and that gives YOU the opportunity to let them help out from one event to the next. But don’t forget, you’re going to impress someone new with each festivity. Add music, lights, then ACTION! Open the door, let’em in!
Cozy Fires in My Home
This chimnea is sitting beside my hottub. Talk about a little romantic getaway right in my very own backyard after dark! For a couple of years I didn’t even use it, but I found chunks of firestarter at Dollarama, and broke it up into 4 peices. Yes, that means only 25 cents for a fire that lasts 20 minutes. That’s as long as I sit in the hottub at one time. We have outdoor speakers also, so if you hear the music on in my neighbourhood at night, don’t go looking for it! I may be having a private romantic moment with my sweet man of happiness!
Another ‘romantic fire’ we have in our home is on the TV in our bedroom…tucked away on the top shelf of a custom closet made ju
st for it. The fireplace DVD is always handy. My husband never has to guess if I’m in the mood when I start THAT movie! There is a crackling sound, and ladies, the lighting is perfect for our skin!
5 Small Steps to Start your Holiday Season
I just can’t help it! I have to start writing about the season. The blanket of snow outside my front porch is so beautiful at the moment, while I’m cozy in my robe. I’m allowed, today, because I just finished my 2 12 hour night shifts at the hospital. This 5 day-off segment is going to be packed full of both business and social activities.
I’ve been surfing and reading about the trends in holiday decorating for 2011, and none of it really surprises me.
This year you will see a blend of both silver and gold together in the same setting.
Bling, bling, bling! I love both, although I’ve been using silver the past few years.
This early in the season, there are a few things that you can do to get a head start on your holiday decor. Remember, think of the small steps, the tasks, rather than the whole project at hand.
1. A simple wreath in either natural green or pure white will show your neighbours that you’re in the spirit already.
2. The next time you’re in any store that has Christmas decor, take a stroll down the aisle, just for a look at what’s happening.
3. Have a peek at your boxes of last year’s decorations. Are there things that you’ve tired of? If they don’t represent the holiday that you want this year, take a box over to your donation store. Someone else will surely enjoy them.
4. Personally, I wait for Dec 1 to put up my tree, but now is the time to start de-cluttering that space. Don’t add to the decor, replace instead. Simplify, simplify!
5. If you choose to send greeting cards this year, get out your address book, update it by checking the white pages on your computer for postal codes, addresses, etc. New friends this year? Business contacts? You may want to add them to your list. Just sayin’!
