Project, Project on the Wall

Who is the most urgent of them all?

One of the things that I struggle with is keeping track of projects that I've either started or want to do.

I created an inspiration/project board in my craft room and divided it into sections for various types of projects.

For my purposes, I created a section for knitting/crochet, a section for sewing, and a section for other things that don't fall into one of those categories. (Although now that I look at it, it appears some of the projects have wandered out of their categories.  Bad projects.)

I also have room for clippings from magazines or drawings that I want to use for inspiration as well as a place to temporarily put receipts for craft projects in case I need to calculate the cost of a project, make a return, or contact a store about inventory.

It's easy to move the cards around in any order you want and once the project is completed, just remove the card permanently.

Unfortunately, I've been adding more cards than I've been removing lately.  I see a few things on my board that need some time and attention.

Now I no longer forget about projects I want to do.  But I do apparently still ignore them.

Dirty Little Secret #2

Just in case one secret wasn't enough, I'll share another, although it may not be as big of a secret as I think.

I'm a starter. I love to dream about a project, plan a project, shop for a project, and start a project. I do not, however, like to finish projects.

So, without further ado, I am adding "finish a few projects" to my July Project of the Month. I'm not saying which ones . . . just that some of the projects I've already started will be finished this month. I'll set a fairly flexible goal of one outstanding project per week just because we have so many other things going on this month.

It might be finishing that sweater where I have to go back and find my mistake, finishing the second sock so that I have a complete pair, finishing one of a multitude of sewing projects, weaving in the ends of a project that I just couldn't stand to look at any more, or even finishing some scrapbook pages that have been abandoned.

So now you have it. All of my secrets.

Well, not all of my secrets. I have to preserve at least some of my dignity.

My Dirty Little Secret

If you ask my friends to use one word to describe me, the word that most often would come up would probably be "organized." It's true. I'm an organizer. However, as my daughter figured out and has so eloquently stated - I like to organize so much that I'm in a constant state of RE-organization. And that basically just leads to a pile of disorganization.


Yes, it's a dirty little secret that I like to keep to myself and almost all of my friends would probably be shocked.


Oh, for sure there are areas that are perfectly organized in my home - at least until I decide to reorganize them. However, one of those areas is NOT my desk.


I was the model of organization when I worked outside of the home. I once even had the president of the company stop by my desk and thank me for having such a neat desk. If only he could see me now. If he's not already dead, he probably would fall over and die right on the spot.


Since I left those days behind, it has been a constant struggle to find the motivation to maintain a neat desk at home. I worked from home for a few years and I do handle all of the "business" of our life, but I've done neither in the same orderly fashion that I brought to my working life and that I strive for in the rest of my home.


Long story short - my desk is a pit where things fall into and never come out. Hard to believe, I know, but I do have photo proof.



Right now, I'm working on a temporary desk in a temporary situation in the temporary space that will eventually be our home office. Therefore, some of my options are limited, but if I'm going to make the most of this small space and make sure that it is designed in a way that best meets our needs, I really need to know what those needs are.


So there you have it - my project of the month for July. File the filing, purge the junk, clean off the surface, and bring a sense of organization to our personal business.


If I were Vern, I would have fired me a long time ago.

A Month of Green

Today brings an end to the month of June and also to the month that I was focusing on being more green in a few areas.

The first area I focused on was simply not using plastic bags. I had hoped not to bring one single bag into the house this month, and although I failed to meet that goal, I didn't fail miserably. We brought less than 10 plastic bags into the house this month, which was WAY less than our regular average. We managed to use reusable bags for almost all purchases. The bags that we did get will be used for purchases at our garage sale.

Which brings me to the second area I focused on - purging. I lost count of the things going out, but I can assure you that we have at least 300 items less than we started the month with.

This is just a portion of the stuff we have sifted through for our garage sale (all of the boxes are full). The garage sale will be sometime next week, and it's going to be a barn burner, that's for sure.

Finally, I vowed to really pay attention to our electricity usage and the hourly rates in an effort to reduce our energy bill. This is probably the area where we had the best success, and it certainly wasn't because of mild weather. We had a lot of very hot weather this past month and had to run our air conditioner because it was simply unbearable. I did, however, check the hourly rates before running the dishwasher and doing laundry, and it was a real eye opener. Our billing cycle runs from mid month to mid month so it's a little deceptive as to savings during the entire month of June, but nevertheless, we managed to save $48 over what the bill would have been on the flat rate plan. That was a 21% savings. It's really an accomplishment because most people are only saving a small percentage on the hourly plan and even less in the summer. Our average total savings over the last year has been $331, which was about 16% less than it would have been on the flat rate plan.

I plan to continue with the good things we started this month. I'm going to make a few more reusable bags so that it's more enticing to use them; I'll definitely be watching the hourly rates (that was a real eye opener for me), and although our garage sale may be over and done with next week, I still plan to keep a ongoing box of items for a future sale or donation.

So what's up for the month of July? I have a couple of ideas, although at least one of them is sort of a dirty little secret that I usually prefer to keep to myself. However, I may just shame myself into forward motion by sharing here. I'll have to sleep on that one, so check back on July 1 to see what the project of the month will be.