ON THE SHELF: ORGANIZING THIN BOOKS

When it comes to patterns, brochures, magazines, and booklets, we crafters can be a bit compulsive. I try to sort through and weed out, but even so, I have dozens and dozens of slender "volumes" to keep track of. I'm sure many, if not most, crafters are similarly blessed.

How to keep them all straight and accessible? Stacking those slim items is inefficient and untidy. Since they don't have readable spines, shelving them with your books doesn't work either.

A filing cabinet might be the first, most logical, choice, but that's not always an option. My solution is one I ran across years ago, in The Messies' Manual. The authors were talking about children's books, but I quickly saw a personal adaptation.

I use the big tins you can buy cookies in. They're available new, full of cookies (my favorite!), or you can find them at yard sales and thrift stores, and they are just exactly the width you need for the average magazine.

Stand them in the tins with the front pages facing the front, and put the tin on your book shelf. Now, when you want to find a particular leaflet or magazine, you can slide the tin out, and riffle through until you spot it.

I've got four of those tins so far, and use each for a different crafting category--sewing, beading, crochet, and miscellaneous. Since they are all basically an elongated octogonal shape, the front and back are narrower, which is handy for the smaller booklets, and also makes a good place to stash my crochet hooks.

Oh, and it's still a really great way to keep children's books organized, too!

THE DAILY LIST: MY BEST TOOL

My girlfriend Alice, many years ago, gave me some of the most valuable child-rearing advice I ever received, all in a single eight word sentence: "Begin as you mean to go on."

Many times I've stopped to think, Do I want to start down that path? If I say Yes now, will it lead to problems later? Rarely was it anything earth-shattering that was being considered--letting the girls do, or not do, something "Just this once!" that I didn't want to become a habit and could see how quickly they'd turn that "once" into, "But you let us yesterday!" It really saved a lot of arguing later.

But that really hasn't got anything to do with my entry, except that I looked at my list and realized it was a map for "beginning as I meant to go on".


Each morning, usually right after breakfast, I pull out my notebook and make out my daily list. As you can see, I divide the page into four quadrants, with the headings, "Errands", "Call/Email", "Do", and "Write".

Those quadrants are essential to this ADD woman, and keep me, mostly, from making grasshopper leaps from one thing to another, especially important in the Errands department--I do Not want to go out and come home, only to discover I've missed a place I meant to get to.

If I leave the house, the list goes with me. Otherwise, it sits at my place at the table and is regularly referred to, and Oh! the satisfaction of marking something off! Some days I do pretty well. Other days, I look at the list in the evening and just sigh: Where did the day go, and how could I have accomplished so little?!

It's okay, though. The things I don't get to one day generally get moved to the next day's list. Some things I forget to transfer, which is why keeping the lists in the notebook works so well for me; I frequently go back through and review the pages.

My preference for anything hand-written is graph paper, preferably 5-to-the-inch. I seem to need those little boundaries to keep my penmanship tidy. This notebook has graph paper on only one side of the page, but that's handy, too--the facing page is great for jotting down notes and ideas, which is another reason I review past days.

Anyway, this helps me keep my days somewhat on track. I hope there's a bit of something helpful here for you, too!

Signing off for now,

Anitra

FAVORITE PEOPLE I NEVER MET

I love going through photographs at estate sales. You just never know who'll turn up, or what expressions they'll be wearing, and I've accumulated a small collection of people who made me smile when I saw them, and set me to thinking of collage projects to come.

As part of my reorganizing project, I got them out and put them on display today, using a bead and wire garland and paper clips. They're on the wall facing the door, so now I get to see their faces whenever I walk into my sewing/craft room, which is looking better by the day.

It seemed appropriate to show them off. This is the whole garland of poses. You can sure tell it's in a basement, but I don't mind!


Isn't this little one adorable? I love the dark plaid dress, which seems somehow flamboyant for the times.


And this handsome young man. Who did he marry? What did he become? Was he happy?


This picture is one I study, and wonder about. Were they caught in a moment that symbolized their life together, and their relationship? Each of them stares, unsmiling, in a different direction...


And what on earth put that expression on our birthday boy's face? Don't you just wish you knew? He looks like he's saying, "Yeah. So? What's it to you?"


Do you see just the tiniest bit of impatience in this little face? It must have been tiresome, so stand so still for the camera, with so much of the world still to explore and experience.


These last three make me want to laugh. People are wonderful, aren't they?

Just look at this family, with its beautiful, bespectacled Mama, mustachioed Papa, and two children, one of whose eyebrows are clearly posing a rather imperious question to Somebody.


Ah, the sixties. Gotta love it. Let's watch The Beverly Hillbillies! And I think Grandma here must've been a total lovely-hilarious character!


Last little charmer, a delight who makes me smile every time I see her:

I'm still not quite ready to unveil the room in all its (har!) glory, but am surprising myself every day with how much I'm enjoying working on it. Filing can be fun? Who knew?!?

YUM! Baked Chicken Ranchero

Played with my food this afternoon, and came up with a new recipe that was really yummy, so I'm going to share it. Here's the finished dish:


Not very instructive, since you can't tell what's under all that sauce and cheese, but doesn't it look absolutely good enough to eat?

Here's what you'll need:

• Four nice pieces of skinless chicken (I used thighs; boneless breasts would be nice, too.)
• Four whole chili peppers, split lengthwise
• One 4-oz can sliced mushrooms
• One 24-oz jar of really good spaghetti sauce (more on that later)
• About 1 1/2cup uncooked rice
• Enough grated cheese to look nice when it's melted over the top

Start by spreading the rice in a 9"x13" baking dish. Lay the four pieces of chicken atop the rice, and spread a split chili over the top of each one. Drain the can of mushrooms and sprinkle evenly over that. Pour the spaghetti sauce over all.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, until the rice is done and the chicken juices run clear. (I'm vague here because mine had been baking for about half an hour when the DH called to say he'd be home in about an hour. That was later than I'd anticipated, so I lowered the oven to 200 degrees and let it cook until DH was home and everything else was ready.)

Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top and return to the oven just long enough to melt.

We had tossed salad, apple slices, and a glass of sangria with this. SO good.

Now, about that spaghetti sauce. I wouldn't normally name names, but this was a new (to me) brand that I picked up the other day at The Grocery Outlet. It was amazing--all natural, and full of sliced mushrooms, thick tomato sauce, red and green bell peppers, garlic, fresh basil, and even white wine. The brand was Rao's Homemade Southern Italian Pepper and Mushroom Sauce. If you can find it, it's definitely worth picking up!

Other news: Still working on that organization thing, and actually beginning to think I'll succeed.

I've spent the last two mornings working with paper, doing the 4th quarter report, totalling up my business sales for 2009, and revamping my filing system. In the process of that, I went through every paper in the files, and got rid of anything that wasn't something I needed or wanted. There was one moment that was kind of funny, too. The last file folder I labeled said "Financial/Quarterly Reports", and when I'd finished writing that, I picked up the file and looked at it, and dang, if I didn't all of a sudden feel official!

Then I started working on the calendar, filling in the dates of shows I know I'll be doing, and beginning to schedule the steps that would lead up to each one.

You know what's nice? I'm starting to feel like things are under control, and my stress levels have gone WAY down. And it feels so good to see my craft room looking tidy(er), that I actually am enjoying going down just to see what else I can do!

BRIGHT AS THE BUTTONS

Do you remember this chest? I showed it as part of my clean-up/organizing efforts, downstairs in my craft room. It was a really good buy--100% metal, in nearly perfect condition, for just $12.50--but beautiful, it was not.


I had already decided I was going to use it for button storage, assigning a color per drawer, except for yellow and orange, which get to live together.

As I put the buttons into their new digs, the colors ran through my mind, and pretty soon songs were, too..."Yellow bird, up high in banana tree..." "Blue, Navy, blue, I'm as blue as I can be..."

I've been reading a wonderful book, Organizing from the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern, and one of the things she says in it is that you're more likely to use an organizational tool or item if it's attractive. I know that to be true from past experience. It was a small leap, and only an hour or two, from the dreary chest above to this:

It makes me smile when I see it, and has an added benefit: If I chance upon a button that has fallen to the floor, or been slipped into a pocket, a small gift from Mom, I know without thinking what drawer it goes in! (Black, white, and gray are in another chest. The drawers of this one weren't large enough to hold them.)

CHAGRIN AND BEAR IT, PT 2

Okay. Time to let a little more of the cat (poor thing!) out of the bag. There was a reason I showed just my sewing table in “Chagrin and Bear It, Pt 1”. I didn’t have the courage to show the whole room!

I’ve been working on that room for days, and I’m starting to think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. And it is not the headlight of an oncoming train, either!

Ready? Here's where I next took action:

It went from that to this:

And from that to this:

That top tub is going elsewhere!

After that, I figured it was time to tackle some floor:

It soon looked like this:

And then this:

Yay!

Now, there were some comments on that first post to the effect that the mess wasn't so bad. I suspect that is truly because I'd shown so little of it! The good news is, I'm making real progress. The bad news? The worst is still to come!

PS Did you notice the lovely chest in the third picture, the one with the unusual drawer hardware? DH and I picked that up at an estate sale for $2.50, delivered! It had a badly broken drawer, and a missing drawer pull, so my lovely DH shortened the dresser, turned it from a five-drawer chest into a four-drawer. I love the chest, and ardently admire the DH's talent!

CHAGRIN AND BEAR IT

This is embarrassing, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Have I mentioned I'm organizationally challenged? Or that my New Year's Resolution is to get over that? One of my problems, frankly, is motivation. Housework, cleaning, straightening, whatever you care to call it, is very low on my list of priorities. It's never been something I enjoy, and I have lots and lots of stuff I can do that I do enjoy, so, well, I fall behind. A lot.

And then that gets in the way of the things I want to do, right? I mean, I can sit down and sew when my sewing table looks like this, but...

Well, this is embarrassing!

It's not exactly an easy place to work. That's obvious.

So today I decided to expose myself to untold ridicule and show the world this mess. Why? Because if I do that, I'll have to clean it up in order to get unembarrassed!

And I did:

Ahhh. I feel better now.

I do feel better. The thing is, if that were the only disorganized place in the house, or even that room, it wouldn't be too bad. Everyone has a bit of a mess somewhere at sometime. I think. Maybe not my Mom...No, even Mama occasionally, once in a blue moon, makes a mess. Okay, so everyone is messy sometimes, and that's no problem. But my messes seem to just go on and on and...

Brace yourself, because this is just the beginning. I'm just going to have to keep going at this until I straighten up and fly right!

NEW RESOLUTION: GRAB A NEW HABIT!

Well. Here we are. Time to make New Year’s Resolutions!

About half of us do that, did you know? A good many of the ones who make resolutions actually manage to stick with it through January, but fewer than half last more than six months.

I got to thinking about that, and wondering why. Maybe it’s because what we need is more habits, good habits. I’ve read it takes just twenty-one days to form a habit, and once you do, well, it’s a HABIT.

So if my goal is to become more organized, and it is, then I need a habit, or habits, that will foster organization, right? So now, I’m wondering what those habits would be, and I can think of several:

• Put things away after using them
• Check they calendar every day
• Uh…have a calendar, or more specifically, a datebook
• Make a schedule for creating art, running errands, keeping house, writing, etc.
• Organize the spaces used for “life activities”—shop, sewing room, office, kitchen, etc.

I think making those things my new habits will be my New Year’s Resolution.

Okay, now you. You with the hot cuppa, sitting there, reading this. What will your new habits for 2010 be?

One last thing: I wanted to put an image in here of, you know, a hand writing a list on some cool old weathered paper, using a spiffy quill or something, but while I was looking for that I found the list above, and it's on a site where you can download all kinds of lists to help you get organized, for free! Here's a page full of calendar helpers, but poke around on the website--lots of great stuff!