Some of My Favorite Places

My plan to "tidy" and "declutter" has sort of gone awry. Sort of like this--

It all sort of goes along with my natural tendency to "clean when I see it".  Well, yesterday I saw this --

What a disaster

 So  set about doing a major tidying up -- such a mild, civilized way to put it.

This is where I store my laundry and cleaner making supplies as well as my emergency lighting

The battery drawer -- relocated to a more logical place than a drawer in the living room where they had been

And this is what it looks like this morning -- now, I can't get rid of all the trappings of a laundry room but it is a major improvement, don't you think?

 Now possibly the laundry room can be one of my favorite places to go -- maybe.

Some of my other favorite places to go are hardware stores.  We are regulars at Lowes, Home Depot, Westlake Ace and Jabo Ace.  They all have something different to offer and a lady can have a jolly good time shopping at these places as well as the husbands.  When I go to a hardware store I am either shopping for kitchen-y things or yard things or I am walking laps around the perimeter of the store to up my step count for the day.  My knees and feet hurt too much if I have to stand still too long waiting for Hubs to look at every little bit of whatever it is he looks at so I walk.

At our last trip to Lowe's I decided to try this --

I have a Reveal mop that works sort of like this but it has an attached reservoir that allows you to use any cleaner you want in it.  I really like it but it tends to be heavy and my shoulders seem to hurt these days so I thought this would be a good alternative.  The dust mop is good but the mop is so easy and the spray doesn't leave your floors sticky like the Swiffer stuff does.  I am finding this to be so easy, it is non-toxic and probably more expensive that I would like but my shoulder is worth it.  Now if my elbow would quit hurting I would be just dandy.




At our last visit to Westlake Ace I was looking for this --

I had run out and haven't been able to find it at any of the usual places but I found it at Westlake Ace.  As I was browsing the home keeping area I found these -- I scooped them up as they are quite sturdy and my silicone mixing spoons are turning a very strange color and I am growing suspicious of their safety. So, I brought these home.

New wooden spoons

And then there was this little diversion to my day.  Awhile back I had purchased a little needlepoint kit for Bean similar to this--

She seems quite interested in needlework and Sunday when she was here she asked if I would teach her to cross stitch.  Hmmmm......well, I told her I couldn't because I needed to get some special fabric for her.  It was the truth, I don't have any 14 ct. aida in my stash and I think anything smaller would be too hard for her.  I have heard of youngsters learning things like this to use large, even weave dish clothes and burlap and things of that nature to learn but I decided to just do this -- I had two good coupons at Joann's so I took a break from the laundry room to run across the street and pick up these things --

I thought this would make a perfectly adequate sewing box

And sewing stuff

She has some aida and floss, a little pair of scissors, REAL needles with REAL rules, a child's apron with an iron on to learn to embroidery, some muslin and buttons to learn how to sew on a button.  I think that should keep me busy for a while, don't you?

So, yesterday was a busy day and today I am looking forward to going to the used bookstore around the corner to sell some books and pick up the next Elm Creek Quilts title in my queue.  I love buying books used -- they are almost like new for the most part -- especially the hardbacks -- and it just feels like such a deal. 

Oh, yes, my lesson learned for this week -- don't ever buy whole chickens again no matter how great a price they are going for.  I took a whole chicken out of the freezer on Saturday morning to cook on Sunday.  Sunday it was frozen solid so I had to go to the store to buy more chicken.  Yesterday I checked, still frozen so I just left it in the fridge.  This morning, determined to cook that chicken I took it out of the fridge, unwrapped it and by golly, that thing is still frozen! However, I didn't care -- I sliced up an onion and put it on the bottom of the crock pot and that little chicken is now sitting proud on her onion throne and I may have to cook her until tomorrow but for certain we are going to eat this chicken and I will never buy a whole one again!