UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

As you can see from the picture, my living room is a disaster. My dining room looks the same way – like someone just unloaded a large U-Haul. This is only one of 5 areas of the living room/ dining room:

When we moved me into the studio four years ago, nothing went as planned. Bob was anxious to turn my old office into his man cave. That meant nothing got put away in the studio the way I wanted… more dumped wherever it would fit.

Since then I’ve also added more things – mostly planner and Mixed Media items – that I’ve had to find room for. Instead, those items just got added to the already disorganized mess.

I’ve been trying since January to get my office/ studio in order – all while trying to carry on with my daily work routine, write a book and keep the house presentable. I finally came to the conclusion that plan of attack wasn’t working.

First off, I have OCD. I can’t work on something unless everything is in order. Just makes my life more complicated.

Last week, after writing all my blog posts for the week, I emptied the studio into those two rooms. I’ve worked all weekend with the cleaning part. Washing windows, shampooing carpet, detailing furniture… you know what a deep clean entails.

This week I HAVE to get stuff back in place so that office work can resume as usual. Bob comes home on Wednesday. He’d really like to be able to sit at the dining room table in the morning with coffee or sit in his recliner in the evening to watch TV. To add insult to injury, his best friend is planning a visit for the coming weekend. Kevin helped us move in thirteen years ago. He hasn’t seen the house with the addition of my studio. So yeah…. This room HAS TO GET DONE.

With that, I’m taking this week off of all of my blogs, no book writing and only the 1 crafting deadline I have for Wednesday.

Blog post should resume next week – Monday May 4th or Tuesday May 5th. If Kevin shows up, I’ll have all weekend to hide in the studio and get ahead of the week. Otherwise, that’s what I’ll be doing on Monday. I always devote Bob’s first weekend home to him. He’s been gone for twenty-one days, after all.

Thank you for your patience and I’ll see you next week!

GARDEN TOUR

Good morning, everyone!

The temperatures are starting to climb back up to normal averages. Rain in the forecast for tonight as well as on and off throughout the weekend. Wet and cold sure make wanting to get into the garden difficult. 

I have rhubarb to plant. As soon as I purchased the rhizomes, the temps plummeted to freeze/ frost warnings! Hoping I can get those in Sunday. On the plus side, nothing seems to have been damaged by the cold temps. I did cover up the butterfly garden and the two clemitis a couple of nights just in case. The peach trees and the apple had already started leafing so they were spared.

Here's a walk-through of what everything looked like a week ago. Mind you, all the rain has me behind in everything outside. I'm hoping to get into gear first of the week. 

I'll have a new video next week. I've gotten the greenhouse someone cleaned up but have been negligent about getting the seeds started as I've found a mama wren. She chose to build her nest in one of my baskets. I don't want to disturb her. She is fine when I first go in but if I hang around too long, she leaves the nest and flutters around encouraging me to leave. We only have about another 8-10 days I figure before those 5 little eggs should hatch. So for now, the green house is hers.  I monitor to make sure the temp doesn't go over 70*F in there. If they do, then I open the windows to get a cross ventilation but not so that any critters can get in.

Until this shelter-in-place thing is lifted, there won't be any travel posts. I've been making a list and planning how to arrange my hatch back for over-night/ camping adventures.

Everyone seems so disturbed by their overseas/ cruise plans being derailed through this. While I'd love to visit Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain there is so much more in our Great America I'll never see all of as it is. 

When I do travel, I'll take you with me. 

In the mean time, stay smart, stay safe, stay home.