FLY LADY - Week 1 - Laundry Room & Kitchen

 Good morning, friends!

Welcome to November, the month when busy takes on it's own color. I'll be focusing on what needs to get done before I start holiday baking the first weekend of December. It's tradition.

Since I took care of most of the deep cleaning before decorating for Halloween, I don't have a lot to do in the laundry room. Wednesday, I'll begin packing away Halloween. I always leave those decorations up until after Day of the Dead. I posted a picture of my Day of the Dead display piece on my IG account if you want to see. @angeladrakea I'm trying to be more regular about posting under my author account as well as my creative. @kellyscreativedreams

Wednesday, the haunted village will come down and the witch display on the high chair. I'll take up the orange rugs under the cat box, sweep/ mop then put down the tan/ cream rugs. I have a fall display for the high chair. I'll also sweep behind the appliances and give the upright freezer a good wipe down. 

The kitchen will get a bit more detail. I'll start by taking down the minimal Halloween decor I put up in there. Other than that my only other plan is to do a deep clean on the refrigerator and steam clean the Emeril and the oven. I'v had this oven for over a year and never used the self-cleaning feature. I think it's past time. I want the oven all sparkly clean before I start my holiday baking.

Having done deep cleaning in those two rooms in prep for Halloween is a blessing as I move closer to Christmas. While I've not done all I'd hoped (thanks to a couple of really irritating health days), I am happy with what I accomplished. Fall & Halloween decorations have been paired down and I know where everything goes back next year.

How is your November looking? Anything you really want done before Thanksgiving or Christmas? Make your list, pair the tasks down to one a week and let's get started!

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

 ~ Kelly

FLY LADY - Week 4 - Halloween Decorating

 Good morning, friends!

I woke up to 50* this morning. In the final week of October. Really? I haven't looked to see the projected high for the day but I'll be inside all day anyway setting up for November and finishing the decorating.

I've been deep cleaning one room at a time decorating that space. Once the decorations are in place, I've moved to the next and repeated the process. By the end of this week, my goal is to have gone through all of the Halloween & Fall decor, keeping only what I'm using this year and going forward. I deleted a lot of the photos off of my camera, not thinking about saving to share here. I'll have those next year. In the mean time, here are the bathroom pictures.

My shoe cabinet (and Tabby's bed sometimes). I've draped this piece with remnant black felt from my stash. The book is a vintage book of Riddles to Scare you. I'm not concerned about moisture. Should I decide to use the bubble tub, which is the only item creating moisture, I'll simply remove the book from the room. Then there's a motion-sensored ghost from Dollar Tree and my furry little pumpkin friend (probably a garage sale find).

This next display is above the tank. I got the picture from Big Lots several years ago. You can set it to leave the lights on or press a spot in the top left corner to make spooky sounds as well as the lights go crazy. Most of the figurines below are from Spooky Hollow collection from Menards.

This last display is the top of the tank. I've had both of those Pooh beanies for over twenty five years. I draped the tank cover with a black hand towel from WM, Mainstay brand. 

Next I have a picture of the laundry room. Are you getting the idea I'm one of 'those people'? I've been accused. LOL

In the everyday layout, this top shelf would be filled with birdhouses and my vintage baby scale. During Christmas, this becomes Santa's Village at the North Pole. 

These houses were created from $Tree doll houses. The ones on either end are created from two, the one in the middle from three then two singles. I sprayed them completely black. Some of the videos showed highlighting detail with silver or other colors but for their height, I went will all black. The bottle brush trees are all sprayed with Espresso paint. I ran orange lights through each house. As you'll see in the second picture, the scene is set off by a beautiful orange glow, almost as if the whole block is on fire. I've added Harry Potter, Weasley and Heroimine figurines from $Tree as well as a witch figurine and mail box from the Spooky Hollow collection from Menards and a cauldron from tim Holtz.

Here is the scene at night. Witch hats replace the sun hats of summer. At Christmas, Mr. & Mrs. Clause hang their hats as well as the three top elves' hats.

After coffee with Bob this morning, I'll dive into decluttering the kitchen then deciding which decor goes up in that room. Then anything not designated for the living/ dining room area will be off to the thrift store.

Christmas is only two months away. Are you planning to decorate? My philosphy is do what brings you joy then let the rest go. Life is short. 

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

 ~ Kelly

FLY LADY - All About Decor

 Good morning, friends!

After a long week at conference then trying to get my system back on track, I'm ready to dive in and decorate.

I didn't eat like I should of at the conference. Four days of too many carbs and not enough protein plus not eating on schedule really made for a long recovery last week. I'll get there. 

First off, last week when Bob said he was taking trash in, I decided to finally get the 'cat counter' cleared off. Initially, when we designed the living room a 3-cabinet length of countertop was supposed to be for folding clothes. Then we had to put the cat food dishes up where HoneyB couldn't get to them - thus, the 'cat counter'.

This is the Before I showed you last month:

The canning jar box with stuff is gone. The magazines went to recycling and the three bin cubes became much clearer storage. If there was anything having to do with HoneyB, it went out. Bob took part of the old towels for his shop and I put a couple in the office. The bird food is now much better organized. That blue cube is water for cooking should the power go out. We emptied what was left. I just need to sanitize it then fill with fresh water for the winter. That cube will not go back on the counter until we need it. I'll show you the new placement next week. 

Here's where we are now:

Much better. The bare end is where Tabby jumps up to sit in the window to argue with Tennessee who lives on the front deck. After a trip to town later this week, the cube baskets will be swapped out for two black and an orange for Halloween, then the black swapped back for the brown for the remainder of fall. Just before Thanksgiving, the orange will be swapped back outfor the cranberry. Yes, I'm one of those people. LOL

One thing I learned through the process this week is to not look at the entire room when trying to declutter. Weekly cleaning schedule? Absolutely. But not decluttering.

Instead, pick ONE area and dive deep til it's done.

This week I'm focusing on sorting through all of my fall and Halloween decor. Apparently, not everthing got put away as it should. Here's where I'm at as I type this on Sunday evening:

After breakfast, I'm going through every single tub. I'll sort into rooms, decide what I want to keep and the rest will go into donation later this week. The only thing not going up this year are the Halloween trees, but at least the house will be ready for them next year. 

The week before Thanksgiving, I'll repeat the process with Christmas tubs. There's a lot more of those and they're bigger. 

Pick just one area, even if it's just one drawer, dive deep then reward yourself for a job well done.

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly

FLY LADY - WEEK 3 - Office

 Hi everyone!

Even though I'm scheduling this a week in advance, I know for a fact I will have had a great time at the conference. LOL

If all went well while I was gone, I'll be spending this week trying to find some semblance of order in this room. The filming corner is tops on my list then I'll work my way out into the rest of the room. There will be more purging! I also want to clear off and organize the work table. 

My work table is 2 ft. wide by 6 ft. long. With the ironing platform on one end and the side leaves in place, that gives me 4 ft. x 7 ft. of work space. My computer/ immediate office items for daily work take up about 3 ft. x 6 ft. The other side houses my printer and stuff. 

I have my work cut out for me. I was almost there before the ceiling issue and I had to move stuff to where ever I could find to put everything out of harms way. 

One reason to get things in order is I have a 4+ hour class with Tim Holtz on the Simon Says Stamp website on Saturday, the 17th. This will be the third class I've taken with Tim. Always a great time. If not for Tim, I'd be heading for the Witch Crawl in Eureka Springs on Saturday. I am officially a crone and this would have been the year for me to go. Maybe next year, as we step into a new turn of the wheel. 

I'll be back next week with more of an update and hopefully some pictures.

What will you work on this week. Remember, the holidays are fast approaching so if there's anything you can go through now in prep for however you celebrate, make your list and start somewhere.

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

 ~Kelly 

FLY LADY WEEK 2 - Living Room & Dining Room

 Good afternoon, everyone!

I'm getting this scheduled on Sunday the 4th as I'm in deep prep for my trip on Wednesday. With that in mind, I will be paying some attention to the area before I leave.

My goal for this week is to move the Pink Ribbon journal kit boxes moved back to the warehouse as well as a couple of other things. Beyond that, there are not enough hours in the day. 

There won't be anything to doin the dining room because I'm pretty sure Bob's going to be tearing out part of the ceiling to see if he can find the link that has been a trouble spot for years. We think the leak is saturating the insulation then just continuing to drip after the rain has moved out. I don't want to be around for that excavation. LOL  

I'll be in Eureka Springs AR for the 60th Annual Ozark Creative Writers conference. This will be my 30th year in attendance and my roommate's 50th! I've met amazing people through this conference and many have passed on over the years, as is bound to happen. 

I won't be back until the 12th, so I'm going to schedule that post next.

Good news is, the leak in my office seems to be fixed. Bob is going to repair the ceiling so I can spend my first week back putting things back to normal in my filming corner. So once again, office and bedroom will be flip flopped. 

I hope you're enjoying nice weather where you are. 

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly

FLY LADY WEEK 1 - Kitchen & Laundry

 Good morning, everyone!

I am so in love with the fall weather that has finally arrived in the Ozarks. Our high today should only be about 79*. With full sun and me with TONS of work to be done in the house.

I'm back to cleaning the laundry room & kitchen. With all the office prep I have to do this week ahead of leaving for a writer's conference next week, I'm not digging in deep. Just making the rooms presentable. 

I've still not hauled out the fall decor. At this point, it's all about Halloween - hopefully by the weekend so I can enjoy it for a few days.

Laundry is cat counter and floors. Bob took recyclables in last week so I don't have to do those.

Kitchen is all about clearing that corner by the coffee pot I didn't get to last week so I can put up the Halloween display there, the coffee island, and the floors. I need to deep clean the refrigerator but that will have to wait until the the first week in November when I start prepping for Christmas baking. 

The only other thing for the kitchen is to prep meals/ leftovers for Bob to have at the ready while I'm gone for five days. That is the 1950's mentality. I always make sure there is food in the fridge/ freezer for Bob. While he is totally capable of cooking his meals, I like to provide him with a variety that is easy to grab. 

Aside from that I have to get blog posts and videos up ahead of leaving a week from Wednesday. I need everything scheduled/ posted through the 17th so I don't have to dive right into working as soon as I'm home. I want to spend a couple of chill days with Bob.

What room are you focusing on this week?

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly

FLYLADY Week 4 - Still In the Office

 Good morning, everyone!

Well, I turned last weekend upside down. I'm involved in four different craft challenges due by end of the month. Rather than make a bigger mess by pulling everything out of the planner corner, I decided to see how many of the challenge videos I could knock out. It's been a busy three days and I'm nowhere near done. But I do have until this afternoon.

I did get the rest of the flour and rice dry canned as well as four loads of laundry. I'm contemplating the white oad this morning. Haven't decided yet.

Weather is still hot but to cool down this week. I'm still waiting on a storm to test the roof leak. I don't know what I need more at this point, confirmation the roof is fixed so I can put stuff back or for the temperatures to get considerably below 100*F.

I'm supposed to do a 31 Days of Halloween on my creative channel but right now, I'm strongly considering 13 days. That would let me hold off until the 19th before I have to start uploading content. The Ozark Creative Writers Conference is the second full weekend in Oct. I'll be gone for six days, meaing I'll have to have all that content recorded a head of time and can upload the videos while I'm at the conference ot just relax so I'm not wore out before the conference. I'll let you know what I decide LOL

As we approach Autumn (supposedly) think about how you want to switch things out, or do you? At this point, with the house in complete chaos, I think fall decor will wait til next year. If I'm lucky, something more than the Christmas tree will go up. 

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~Kelly