Slumber Party Movies

The other day there was a Bring It On Marathon on TV. Ryan was a little surprised to hear my declaration that I consider Bring It On and other movies in this general genre to be "great movies". I think what I really mean is that it is a great slumber party movie and even though I am no longer invited to slumber parties, I can still appreciate the spirit of them in a good movie.

This brings me to a list - great slumber party movies:
*Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
*Bring It On
*Nadia
*Stick It
*Monty Python and the Holy Grail
*Anne of Green Gables
*Clueless
*Much Ado About Nothing

For some reason I thought of a whole lot more earlier in the day - oh well.

Decluttering

I recently started reading a book called "Clutter's Last Stand" which I borrowed from the library. It has had a profound affect on the state of our house. The author points out how when you save everything 'just in case' you end up with so much junk that you can never find the thing when you actually need it and then you end up going out and purchasing the thing anew. He also talks about how much time we waste finding our stuff and then maintaining it. So I have been doing a major decluttering of our house. It has been liberating! I am definitely planning to travel through life a little lighter from now on.

So my project for this week is to actually tackle the office - which has long been the dumping ground for miscellaneous paper, cds, books, electronic equipment, etc. Wish me luck.

First Stitch

I just realized that even though I now knit a little bit almost everyday, I haven't even mentioned how this came to be. It all started earlier this year. You see for Christmas I wanted to make crafty things for people in my life - following my homemade sends love motto. So I made a knitting themed bag for Mary and included some needles, yarn and instructions so that she could learn to knit (as most of you know we have long been avid crocheters with crochet parties that were the stuff of legends).

Getting the knit kit together for Mary, made me want to learn to knit myself - so after I finished William's quilt, I finally took it up. It was actually quite easy to learn off the internet - several sites had great illustrations on various stitches and then with the arrival of the aforementioned knitting book. So... I am hooked.

Here are pics of one of the hand towels that I did for Mother's Day and a wash cloth that I did for my mom as well. There is a close-up of the hand towel so that you can see the neat texture/design of it. The wash cloth is so bright and happy that I actually got it wet - hoping it would bleed - so that I would have an excuse to keep it for myself. It did not bleed, so I sent it off to my Mama with love.

Mason-Dixon Knitting

I recently - several months ago - got a new book from zooba that I absolutely love - Mason Dixon Knitting. It is my first knitting book so I don't know much about the genre, but I must say it is fabulously fun to read. As I am reading it - looking at their projects and stories to go along with them, I can't help but feel like I am among friends (the type who love crazy projects and crocheting parties). I also can't help but want to try to knit everything they show in the book.

As I am a beginning self-taught knitter, I am trying to pace myself. Even so, I have made several hand towels and several dishcloths so far. In fact, I am hoping to be sponge free very soon. My goal is to have a fresh dishcloth for each day so that they never get that funky smell that I can not seem to microwave/dishwash out of my sponges.

For some reason though, perhaps it is the frugal fanny or the closet environmentalist in me, I am drawn to the rag ball rugs. I am desperately trying to think of a place in my house that needs a rug knit from strips of old clothes - unfortunately, nothing comes to mind. Maybe I will just have to make another denim quilt to satisfy my urge to reuse fabric in a useful way.

Seeing Indigo

Every once in awhile, I rediscover my favorite band of all time - The Indigo Girls. This time it was brought on by the title to a friend's blog entry. So I went and hunted down my actual cds and listened to them. It was fabulous. The Indigo Girls are so soul full and have actual substance to their songs. And nothing says cool like old school IG booming from a mini-van.

The Coffee Solution

Since leaving the church, I have rediscovered (I had a two-week rebellion in France as a 13 year old where I had cafe au lait, which was included with our dinner, almost every night) the joy of a good cup o joe in the morning. William says, and I humbly agree, that I make the best cup of coffee she has ever had. In fact, she always tries to talk me into opening my own coffee shop.

William also told me about my mom giving her a taste of her coffee when she was young and how much she didn't like it. So when Audrey asked for some of my drink, which she does with everything I consume, I thought I could give her a spoonful and she would hate it and never ask for it again. Well that backfired - lil' Miss Audrey loved it and kept signing for more.

Obviously, she is far too little to drink coffee, so I have come up with a clever solution. I heat up some milk for her and stir in a spoonful of molasses. That makes it very close to the same color as my latte and Audrey is very happy with flavored milk.

Flossing milestone

This post is probably TMI in a major way - but I finally finished off my first whole container of floss in my life. This is not actually as bad as it sounds. Every year we each get a container of floss in our stockings and so we have quite a few that are started in some way or another. Plus floss is one of those things that you end up buying every time you buy a toothbrush or paste, just to be sure you have some (which I recently realized I have a whole box full).

Until I started FLYlady I was a sporadic flosser at best. Since FLYlady, I have been flossing 2-3 times a week. When William came to visit however, that all changed (she has braces and is a fanatic about dental hygiene these days) - I have been a daily flosser since. She mentioned that she goes through floss rather quickly and I mentioned that I have never gone through floss at all. So here I am proving that I have seen the flossing light!

Project - car in garage

We have a very small one car garage, which until now we have used as storage space. Well this week that changed. I was watching an Oprah on Monday about a family who had Peter Walsh - an organizing guru come and help them get their crazy house in order.

The first thing they tackled was the family's two car garage that didn't have room for any cars. He pointed out that the family's most expensive possessions were their cars and they were storing them outside in the elements while storing a few hundred dollars worth of miscellaneous stuff in their garage. When he said that - I realized how utterly silly it is for me to do the same.

So, today while Audrey was asleep I emptied our garage of all its junk and put the mini-van in it. It is a very snug fit. So snug in fact, that I can not get the sliding door open because of the garbage can. Needless to say, I need to keep decluttering in there so that I can rearrange. (I think I am going to put the food storage stuff in the laundry room and then I should be able to fit all of our painting stuff on the shelf and move the garbage can to where the painting stuff is.)

So my project this week of getting the car in the garage is nearly complete. However, my project for next week of finding a new home for all our stuff is just begun.

Crafty Adventures

I finally gave William the demin quilt that I have been working on for what seems like forever. Luckily she loves it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before she took it home, so nothing to post by way of picture. Hopefully William will take a picture of it and send it to me and then I can post one for all to enjoy.

Thanks for the pic William!

One can dream

I found an intriguing advertisement in the real estate section of the WSJ for a private restored Tuscan estate called Castello di Casole. Now of course, I still really love my Mexican casa idea, but there is something so romantic about a Tuscan Villa that just can't be beat. I may have to put Under the Tuscan Sun on my netflicks list again.

Anne of Green Gables

I borrowed some of the Anne of Green Gables series from my MIL under the auspices of reading them aloud to Audrey. At first I did just that. But truth be told, Audrey is a bit young to listen to a story being read to her without pictures or the like, so she got bored of listening and played while I still read aloud to her. Then I just got into the story too much myself and I just kept reading without her. So I just finished reading Anne of Green Gables for the first time in its entirety. (Prior to this I read an abridged version once.) The real thing was absolutely delightful! I can't wait to read the rest of the series. And I really want to visit Prince Edward Island - which sounds so magical.

Bikram Yoga

William has been raving about Bikram or Hot yoga for a couple of months now. She is completely addicted and goes several times a week. When I first heard about it, I thought she was crazy. It is 90 minutes of yoga in a 105 degree room. Somehow, I gradually found myself wanting to try it too. Yesterday I finally got my chance.

The room was shockingly hot - I guess I didn't realize what 105 felt like. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised when an older fellow, our teacher, walked in to start the class in a speedo - but I was. William had warned me to keep myself hydrated so I brought in a big bottle of cold water - which was luke warm half-way through class and down-right hot by the end.

I was pleasantly surprised that I made it through the whole class. When I walked out of the room my whole body felt like jello. But about an hour later, I felt energetic and good in a way I have never felt before and it lasted about half the day. Coincidentally I think it took about that long for my face to return to a normal (non-red) shade. So even though I am good and sore today, I am going to try to do it every weekend.

Reading

Recently someone asked me what I was reading and I was a little embarrassed to tell them I had read three Harry Potter books back to back and was planning to keep going. The truth is my daily reading is almost exclusively the Wall Street Journal. I read at least four or five articles a day and often more over the weekend section - which is my favorite. I rarely read anything that has "hedgefund" or similarly boring stuff in the title. I always read their wine and cocktails articles - because I don't know much about that stuff and would like to learn. I generally read their real estate articles and especially the column talking about who is selling and buying what for how much - v. interesting. I usually read their product review sections - I found the section on affordable suiting very useful as was their review of shaving mirrors. So you could safely say that I am a soft reader of the WSJ - with one exception - I always read articles about companies that my investment club owns or is thinking about buying.

FruFru

Ocasionally I get a bit nostalgic for our old 68 VW poptop camper van - Frufru. I can think of a number of times where we got stranded when Frufru broke down, but I can think of even more times when we had great fun at campouts, road trips, etc. in Frufru.

So it is no surprise to anyone who knows me that I regularly look at VW vans on ebay and dream of owning one again someday.

Harry Potter

Last month, I found out that HP 7 is finally going to come out in July. I am definitely not a fanatic, but I do like Harry Potter quite a bit. I remember when HP 6 came out I hadn't read the first 5 books for several years and I felt like I was forgetting so much history and depth to the characters. So this time I decided I was going to reread all 6 books before I read HP 7. I figured if I read one a month I would be done just in time to get book 7.

I am happy to report that I finished the first two books already and I am really enjoying this. Harry Potter books are just fun and have a way of making you feel like you are in on some secret world - just hiding among the muggles like the other great witches and wizards.

If anyone else would like to join me, it isn't too late...

Project - blinds

This week my project is to put up the valances for the last 4 windows in our house where the valances didn't fit. Sadly this project has been in the works since we bought our house and put up all the blinds in the first place nearly 1 1/2 years ago.

Steps to do:
-Measure the 4 windows
-cut the valances to size
-install the valances

Project - basement door

It is funny how sometimes I can just procrastinate something for no real reason at all. Lately, I have been trying to get to the small and big things that I procrastinate finished one project per week. So this week I put up a paper shade over the window to the basement door. This project took me literally all of 5 minutes - and yet, I have had the supplies to do it for months just sitting in the garage. At least it is done now.

As a side note, I must give credit to Mary Merna for letting me in on the one project a week idea. She found a blog where the lady does that and posts her progress.

Milanya the mini-van

I have been trying to figure out a good name for my beloved car for quite some time. The other day, it just hit me - Milanya the mini-van. I am so happy to finally have a good name.

Sleep Solution

I have felt generally sleep deprived for a while, but recently (two days ago) I decided to take a stand. I decided that for one week, I was going to head up to my bed at 9:00 with the goal of being in bed by 9:30. So far I am already feeling much better.

Gilby Baby Blues

Ryan and I went to a Wizards game today for his 30th bday. It was one of the worst games I have ever seen. The Wizards played like they didn't care and/or had a collective hang-over.

Gilby Baby said he was going to score 50 points this game - he scored 9. He couldn't hit a three point shot to save his life.

I am still a huge Gilby Baby fan, but he really has to just stop buying into his own hype. He is fantastic, but it would be nice if he let his playing do the talking.