whine whine whine aka vote for me?

i entered another contest over on greenwala. won't you vote for me? only of course if you like it...okay, back to this purge...someday it will be finished and then what will i do?

the week in review: september 7-13

last week was still hot and fan worthy and still a bit too smoky for any outdoor activity so i remained inside attempting to get back to the great purge. to distract myself, i made up the september bed and peeked into boxes that hadn't been peeked into in a long, long, while. the mister & i did get to visit with friends and the fall garden has been planted, all in all, a pretty productive week. click here for more detail...

happy september!

thanking outloud

thank you all for taking the time to think and write out a comment on my previous post on choices. so many of you wrote and commented about my blathering on in the grocery store that i wanted to respond to you and i haven't figured out an easy way to do so here on blogger so you get this post instead...(p.s. there are thank you's out there for my fellow hoarders as well, keep reading!)

i have to say that it feels tremendous to know i am not alone in my kookiness. i like that i am in good company to my rambling thoughts and mumbling to myself tendencies. phew!

*hugs to you nessie, i hope your weekend and future weekends are always magical. let's keep with the tiny to make BIG change! the shop is going to be interesting...cool ccrap that no one needs but when yo usee it, you will NEED it!

*goosie-here's to small change and thinking and sharing and like-minded peeps. hugs to you!

*ah cathy! i speak of a rant i have in my head all the time but since i am not a parent i fear i cannot say it outloud. it irks me and throws me into a downward spiral when people point out that fact to me. yer right, i am not a parent but i am a mother at heart and a smart cookie to boot. keep up your rants for me! blogger power!

*susan-thank you. now that i have put the words out there. i chastise myself with each touch of a product. no matter what it is. it doesn't keep me from poor choices but it keeps me from thinking about them more. as for the purge, that is exactly what i am doing. i think the biggest issue is that most of these things belonged to my mother and with her gone, i miss her too much. each object has meaning to me. i know she is in my heart but sometimes a jar full of dollie heads is better...;)

*vone-stacey and i often talk about the bubbles we live in. some bubbles are all for making biggee bubbles. i just hope those can attach to the tiny ones. we need bigger bubbles. we need more shouting out of the domino effect, the butterfly effect and the zipper effect. thank you!

*oh amber! love what you wrote and posted! sometimes i am fierce in this thinking and other times i think "i'll be gone soon so what is the point?" gotta keep looking at the big picture I want to see, not the one everyone else is trying to make me see. and while i would have loved to jam that cigarette into his nostril, i know that he still would not change. sigh. doesn't mean i didn't want to. :) and yes, i need to clean and purge so badly otherwise it will be a repeat of cleaning out my mom's and grandma's...and i don;t have any kids to do it for me!

*dkzody-excess is evil. i'm still in the throes. i did find a website listing dairies that use glass bottles. it's just rewrapping my head around the cost. as i type this, the mister is planting the fall garden so with luck we won't need a csa but when the sister a-go-go had one, we rocked some awesome new tastes! isn't is amazing that they are out there? we're already in a small apartment so downsizing to make it less is my goal. i think that if i can knock it down to having ap lace for everything and to only keep what has a place, i can do it. even if it does mean getting rid of my venus de milo salt & pepper shakers. sigh. you can do it!

*yvonne-hugs and squeezes to you! i always love your words. these are so similar to what i hear from myself everyday. we just gotta try, right?

*Ainslie-that's me, addled yet lucd or at least i try to be...lucid that is. the addleness sometimes takes over. thank you for your words,we can only keep on keeping on. right?

*rozetta-i know! why does that happen? i hoard and hoard and hoard and then i get rid of it and sure enough, a week or so later i have just the thing that NEEDS it! aack!

*IamSusie-thank you...i think i am afraid of making room for more! heehee!

*sachitea-zameander has been an amazing source of support and creativity in helping me purge. yes, having someone help is a great gift. a GREAT GIFT! yes, like a sliding puzzle only right now i only have a few numbers lined up. i think if i can just get one more, things will click into place! good luck on your purge..vent away here if you need to!

*Silencer-yes, a second hand is the best thing possible. yay for getting your closet done! make sure that you don;t enable another hoarder when it comes time to clean out yer craft space. they'll take everything and then you'll be helping her clean and you'll bring everything back! aack! :)

*jasmine-it's like we're pinballs destined to bounce along in a machine with no let up. aack! sending you good thoughts to get through it all!

*libby-we are the best at multi-tasking, right? how is the quilt coming along? i wanna see it! sending you good cleaning juju...you can do it and then we can have Portos!

*Stephanie-i never did make the muffins, i was good and made dinner instead. but yes, the kitchen counter needs to be clean as well as the bed made and i feel like i didn't lose the battle alltogether. phew! thank you!

*cindy-pull up a chair and i'll serve you up something cool to drink and we can cheer each other on in the purge. yer are right, it ain't easy at all! do you need someone to bug ya? i will....;)

drag and drop

i think i need a clean up filter for my brain. you know how when you need to clean up your computer desk top, you simply drag and drop all sorts of digital clutter to the trash? i so need this for my brain. this great purge of the casa would be a whole lot easier if i could just point and click at things. where is mary poppins when you need her?

i know i have told y'all that i am a hoarder. i am quite sure it has been shouted from rooftops. i can't help it, it's in my genes. this compulsion to hoard and hold onto things is in direct opposition of my wanting to live a bit more simply. on the one hand, it is great for the environment because i don't throw anything away but on the other hand the real estate in the tiny casa is the size of a postage stamp, customized of course, like from zappos.bags and bags and bags of things have been donated to various thrift shops. niftier things have been passed along to friends. even niftier things are waiting patiently for me to photograph and add to a brand spanking new shop. there is fabric everywhere. in boxes, in bags, in totes stuffed into corners, placed atop tall things, tipping ever so precariously towards the top of mr. a-go-go's head. this tiny real estate is getting a wee bit dangerous!there are odd objects crammed into nooks and all over the floor. there are pez dispensers, vintage pipe cleaners, paper scraps i cannot throw away because they may come in handy for a craft project. there are simply no surfaces left to tuck things away but the good news is that all this stuff, this junk, this crap isn't all over simply because i am some sort of junk fiend, it is all over because i am sifting through it. i am finally getting into the thick of the purge.

why is it always worse before it gets better?

i am stuck in a catch 22. a major catch. a catch like no other yet just like everything else in my life. i can't do this until this is done but i can't do that until that happens. ya know what i mean? i think my problem is that i want to be able to do it right on the first try but when have i ever done it right in that way? when have i ever done it right the second or third times? when have i ever done it right ever? it's that icky feeling of stuck that is creeping up on me but getting stuck when i am so close to finishing is kinda silly. but tell that to my brain. see? drag and drop!so here is what i am asking. hang in there with me and let me know i can do this. let me know i am not the only one who makes things more twisty confusing than they really are. let me know that my brain is okay and in good company. let me know that getting a load of laundry done and baking muffins instead of cleaning is totally normal. it is, isn't it?so i will attempt to go through one box or bag at a time. i will make sure that everything (well, mostly everything) will have its place and that duplicates will be passed along. i will ignore these funny diagrams i have been writing because rather than attack i want to have a game plan but how can you have a game plan when you don't even know what the heck is in all those containers? yes, i will attempt to go through at least five containers. i will. you can ask me tomorrow, nag me even and i will throw things away and recycle what i can and at some point when the clutter threatens to suck my soul away i will bake some muffins. does that sound like a good plan? i think so.

the week in review: aug 31-sep 6

click here for more info...hope yer week is dandy!

gardens a-go-go

a few weeks ago i was invited to a lovely flickr luncheon. i really wanted to bring something along that i loved, loved making and came from the heart. since i am currently (not exactly) working on the great casa purge i thought it would be best and most creative to use what i had. for the most part i did. i ended up picking up some wee doilies from the fabric store because my vintage doilies are tucked away in one of the many, many boxes that are crowding the tiny casa.

i know it is not news to anyone that i am part crafty girl, part hippie, part dreamer and part pack rat. even when i purge i find i need, need, NEED that old camera or clown vase or cigar box. i do, i really do. and as it happens, mr. a-go-go was furiously working on purging his father's garage of all its goodies, stuff, crap and junk that i couldn't NOT pounce on the two dozen or so small glass vials with plastic lids now could i? when the mister hollered "what do you need all that for?" i reminded him that i would find a use or give 'em away and besides "you knew the job was dangerous when you took it!" with a roll of his eyes and a flapping of his arms he scurried away. probably to hide any other jek happy trinkets (aka junk) i might want to drag home.

so here i had a box full of glass bottles. such happy glass bottles. and i had no clue as to what i was going to do. i passed along a few here and there and still there were bottles aplenty, bottles galore. as the luncheon date drew nearer i decided i wanted to give the gift of the garden a-go-go and i thought i would use gift tins for the seeds and then as it happens, i was reminded of my glass bottles as i stubbed my foot on the box as it lay prone on the kitchen floor, tucked sort of into a corner near the cat's dish, the fizz water and another box of the same size only filled to the brim with dusty glass test tubes (i know!).

so here is what i did. thank goodness for seeds, glass bottles, vintage costume jewelry & E6000!